A Golden Sun
by Livinglittlelie
Summary: This is the story of the Doctor and his Bad Wolf, and how they saved the universe. How they travelled and explored, solving the troubles of the people around them. They had the power to destroy galaxies, but decided to protect them instead. Meet the two people that could have saved your life without you even noticing.
1. Introduction

Hello! This is not the first chapter of the story but more like an explanation of the whole. You can skip it if you want, but I think it'll make the story clearer.

First of all, this is a rewriting of the series... ish. The story has a different background idea from the canon (for now), subtle at first, but as the story goes on it'll be more noticeable.

There will be original chapters between the canon (interludes sometimes) that will settle down details, or just because I felt like writing them (quite possible).

Some chapters from canon are not going to appear.

In almost all the chapter beginnings, you will see some sentences in cursive. They are hints of what is going to happen in the story; they're actual dialogues of future chapters, so remember them! There also are some hidden hints in the main story that could help you guess what the hell is going on, so keep an eye on them.

This story will be Doctor-Rose, so other shippers may not like it, but even if it's not your cup of tea, give it a try ok?

I'll be posting a new chapter every two weeks. I'll try to keep up with that schedule as much as I can, and if something comes around, I'll make sure to warn you.

English's not my mother language. This story has a beta reader: BadWolfGirl01 *huge applause*, but if you notice any typo feel free to tell us about it and we'll fix them.

Oh and I don't own Doctor Who, just what varies from canon

**B/N:** Hello! BadWolfGirl01 here! Just a little note to say that since I'm working through the chapters from the beginning, ones that I have **edited will have a [beta'd] by the chapter title** to show that I've been through them.

Starting with "School Reunion", all further chapters will be edited before they are posted. Enjoy the story and please leave a review for my friend here, she needs someone else besides me telling her that her story is amazing!


	2. A Golden Sun

**Part One: New Beginnings**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 1. A Golden Sun **

There are many things humans take for granted: time flux, the planet's rotation, the existence of the ground beneath their feet and the air around them. They know these things exist, but they don't understand them, other than in the most basic of ways, and they cannot comprehend the size of the universe.

They stay oblivious to all the changes that happen around them, unaware of the speed they are travelling through space, only minding their own two feet. They don't feel the Earth under them spinning, they feel it flat and reassuring; yet if it stopped, all of them would be dead in mere seconds.

The same thing happens with time. It is considered permanent, fixed, something that is just _there_, unalterable. Somehow, it's around them and it has always been. Their most faithful companion, it was there at the beginning and will be at the end of the universe, it is in the progression of the seasons and even at the mere ticking of a clock.

Humans assume that time is a strict progression of cause and effect; that every action has both a cause and a product, and that time is both subjective and linear. However, to a time traveller, that is anything but true.

Time can be rewritten (except when it can't), and there are a myriad of possible timelines that stretch from each and every decision. With every choice made, there is a world where that choice was taken in a different direction. Most people will never know if time is changed, because they will only have memory of the current timestream. Some people, however, in the epicentre of change, will forever remember two alternate timelines; what was and what is now.

Around all of us there is a world of possibilities of what could be, what should be and what mustn't come to pass; time strings firmly knotted together, making up the fabric of Space and Time.

This hypothetical cloth is constantly in flux, strings being removed, or tweaked, without the whole cloth suffering major damage; but there are some points that rest permanent, a strong knot of timelines that support the entirety of Time.

Those are what we call a fixed point in time, and if one of the vital timelines supporting it disappeared, all of creation would unravel, like a sweater when a single loose thread is pulled and the whole thing disintegrates.

But there was a species with the task of protecting time: the Time Lords.

The Time Lords were once like any other humanoid species; however, in their planet, Gallifrey, there was a gap in the fabric of Time. Through this gap could be seen the Untempered Schism, the raw Time Vortex, where one can see Time in all its infinity and majesty, raging about.

The Untempered Schism affected their evolution, making them more in tune with time. They had what they called the Time Sense, which allowed them to perceive timelines; to know which points are fixed and which are in flux; to see how a decision will affect a life. With this ability came the task of monitoring Time; keeping fixed points in place, eliminating paradoxes; observing the universe under them, never interfering.

Then something happened, and the Time Lords disappeared.

Most considered the Time War to be legend, if they had even heard the name; yet it was all too real, something the Time Lords knew quite well. The ending of the War left a gaping hole in space where once Gallifrey had spun; and Time was no longer attended.

One Time Lord, however, is still alive. Carrying the weight of a species on his shoulders, with more pain and guilt and rage within him than anyone should ever have to feel, this single Time Lord kept Time flowing freely, as it should. He had taken an oath, long ago: never cruel or cowardly. Never give up. Never give in.

Meet the Doctor, the Time's Champion.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The TARDIS hummed welcomingly as the Doctor stepped inside. He had made a quick stop in Earth after detecting an interference in the TARDIS' radar. It was just a stop to check if everything was ok, and it had ended with a clothes shop blowing up and a man dead.

The mannequins had been controlled by something, and as if they were alive, they began attacking everyone they found in their way. Luckily, the shop was already closed, so there were no customers inside. Unfortunately, that man had stayed behind and the living plastic had found him.

Why did it always end like this!? Everywhere he went, he only met death and destruction. He sometimes wondered why he did all of this, why still bother saving all these people when his hands were soaked with so much blood. Was he trying to redeem himself? Was it because of the adrenaline rush?

He didn't want to think about the main reason. That would lead to why he didn't let anyone near him, and why his head felt so empty all the time. All he could do at the moment was run; never stopping for fear of what would be brought to light if anyone saw his past.

He set the coordinates to the morning after the incident in order to check if there were any living plastic that had managed to escape, but as soon as he introduced the last digit, the console column burst in bright light.

He closed his eyes in pain, and when he deemed it was dark enough to open them again, the Doctor looked around him. Golden time threads surrounded him, strong and knotted, always drifting from one future to the other. The timelines were shifting at an amazing pace in a way that left the Time Lord astonished. Not too many species had timelines this complex; even most of the Time Lords never developed them in any of their lives.

The timelines caressed his rough skin, giving him an odd peace of mind he hadn't felt since… since before the Time War. He followed blindly the golden strings inside the corridors of his ship, and every one of them stopped at a door he had never seen.

He opened the room curiously, observing what was inside. It was a bedroom, where soft tones of pink met with dark wooden furniture. In the middle of the room was a queen-sized bed, and tucked inside it was a girl sleeping peacefully. Her peroxide blonde hair surrounded a heart-shaped face, where pink full lips curved in a little smile.

And the timelines ended in her. They were enveloping her figure, giving off a golden hue that tinted her pale skin. The sight was mesmerizing, and the Doctor stood some moments – five and a half minutes– admiring it.

That was until his advanced brain caught up with him.

"What!?" he sputtered. Her eyes shot open and sat up abruptly

"What? Where am I?" she looked around confused. The Doctor found out she had whiskey-coloured eyes, eyes that you could fall into, and immediately scolded himself, as he had more important matters to concentrate on

"Who are you?" he growled. Without waiting for an explanation, he took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and in two long strides was beside her, examining her.

"I'm… What's this thing?" she looked at the metal wand with interest, gasping softly when the end glowed bright blue and the instrument began making a buzzing sound

"Sonic screwdriver." The screwdriver finished his scan and he looked at the device "You're human. How did you manage to sneak into my TARDIS?"

"The what?"

"The TARDIS. She's my ship. You're inside one of her rooms right now."

She looked around the room, "And why am I here?"

"You don't know?" He raised an eyebrow, sceptical. She look barely out of her teens, and acted like that. The confusion she felt – or feigned – didn't stop her from looking around the unknown place curiously. She was a bit too calm about it, but her behaviour matched with what she said. She really didn't know.

Looking at the honest confusion in her pret- _face_, he sighed "Tell you what, I'll take you home and we can both forget this ever happened. Do we have a deal?"

She nodded slowly and kicked away the bedsheets, revealing her body for the first time. The, _ahem_, very_… shapely_ body only covered with a too thin white satin nightie. The Doctor quickly covered his eyes with a hand, the tips of his ears turning bright pink.

"And get dressed, for Rassilon's sake. I won't drop you nearly naked. I-I'll be waiting in the console room; ask the ship for something to wear and directions, she'll provide… hopefully."

The Doctor left the room promptly, trying to avoid any more embarrassing moments. When he arrived to the console room, he submitted the data he had recollected from the screwdriver into the TARDIS matrix, hoping he could get any information about the strange human that was (hopefully) doing as she was told.

The console's screen showed all the information it had gattered from her, and he couldn't see anything wrong with her. No time radiation, no spatial displacement residue… nothing that could explain the complexity he saw in her timelines. It was as if she had just appeared there. And it made no sense.

The woman that was currently occupying his musings stepped inside the console, dressed with a simple grey hoodie and fitting jeans. He replaced his frowning with a grin and addressed the girl. He would find more about her when he took her where she lived.

"I see you found your way around."

"Yep." She popped the p "The TARDIS' been very helpful. She also gave me a little tour."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. _The TARDIS, being helpful?_ He shrugged the thought at the same time as said time ship gave him what could be translated by a mental cold shoulder.

"Right. Now, could I get an address? I've got something to do in London and I'm in a bit of rush."

She fidgeted "Yeah, about that…"

"What?"

"I… I can't tell you where I'm from."

"And why not?" He demanded, an eyebrow raised

"I don't remember."

"You don't remember where you live?"

"To be honest, I don't remember anything."

He stopped at that "Anything?" She shook her head

Oh, bugger.

He ran a hand through his short hair, hefting the little options they had (which weren't much, honestly). He then remembered something he had installed on the console regenerations ago, on a whim, and he hadn't used it since then. Well, it was worth a try.

The blonde girl watched him move around the central column with curiosity, pressing what seemed random buttons, and she observed how the glow seemed to change with every action the man made. One panel opened in front of her, and the man looked at her expectantly.

"Okay, this might work. I've opened the TARDIS psychic matrix. If you put your hands in it and think about what you remember about 'home' – it can be flashes, even feelings – she'll make sure to find the destination that corresponds with your thoughts and bring us there."

She looked at what he had called the 'psychic matrix'. It had digitiform extensions coming out of it, a yellow hue illuminating them from under it. She put her hand on it hesitant, and the tiny extensions curled between her fingers, tickling her. She then felt something in the back of her head and raised her eyes to the column.

"It's just… so alien." She gasped in amazement. She then looked at him "Are you alien?"

"Yes." He paused, attentive of her reaction "Is that alright?"

"Yeah." She answered breathless "What's what I feel at the back of my head?"

"That's the TARDIS." He answered slowly, his eyes narrowing in confusion "That's strange… you shouldn't be able to feel her…"

"And I have to think of home, right?"

"Yep. And we'll be there in a tick. Most certainly. Probably." _Possibly. _Who was he kidding, it was a long shot.

She closed her eyes and concentrated in whatever she felt that could relate to the feelings of home. A wheezing sound startled her, and when she opened her eyes, the column was moving up and down, as if pumping the energy for the ship to move.

And then, they came to a stop. The Doctor checked the monitor and frowned at the place and date.

"What's wrong?" the girl asked

"The TARDIS has gone to London, 26th of March, 2005. I was there the day before, and I meant to go check things were alright at this the time and place." He looked at her "Well, we now have a hint of how you ended up inside here. Should we go check out?"

He rushed to open the doors and she followed him into a busy street. She was amazed as crowds of people rushed around them, not even giving them a glance. Didn't they notice the huge spacesh-

She looked in bewilderment in the direction of what should have been a massive spaceship, but where it only stood a blue wooden box. She rounded it, placing a hand on its wooden exterior, and when she finished, she opened the blue doors again, looking at the too big room for the tiny exterior.

"It's… it's bigger on the inside!"

It was the Doctor's turn to smile. He never got tired of that sentence "Yep. That's my TARDIS. T. A. R. D. I. S. That's time and relative dimension in space."

"It's amazing!" she smiled at him and closed the doors again "But what's a Police box?"

"It's a disguise!" the Doctor crowed with poorly concealed glee.

"A disguise," she repeated slowly, pointedly glancing around at the obvious _lack_ of blue police boxes on the busy street.

"From the sixties. The Chameleon Circuit got stuck in 1963. Could've fixed it, but I like the way She looks, don't you?"

"Mm, certainly is… retro," she teased. "C'mon, lets move."

The pair walked down the street, and neither of them noticed the face of a mannequin turning on its own, following them with his void eyes.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Still nothing?" the Doctor asked her again. She just shook her head.

"I can't remember anything about this place. It seems familiar, but right now I think I could be in Mars and feel the same way." She just sighed "Look, I'm being a drag here; you said you had something urgent to do, right? You can leave me if you want."

"I could take you to Mars, if you'd like." The Doctor's attempt at levity fell short. He was torn. It was true he had to check out if everything was alright around here – he hadn't detected any strange signals altogether, but it wasn't bat to do an extensive scan for Autons; but he wasn't the kind of people to leave those in need alone.

Moreover, there were still a lot of mysteries around her that hadn't been answered. As how she manage to appear in mid-flight, or why did she have such complex timelines. Let's not forget she's amnesiac, for Rassilon 's sake!

A strong hand on his shoulder stopped his musings. He turned his head, only to see a white mannequin standing behind him, and some feet behind, a bunch of them were slowly approaching.

"Ah… about that urgent thing… it looks I don't need to look for it anymore." The Auton began raising his arm, preparing himself to do a deadly strike. The Doctor grabbed her hand, and for a millisecond, he was struck of how soft and warm it was "Run!"

The pair began running down the street, and everywhere they went, the mannequins of every shop seemed to wake up, running behind them. One of the mannequins took them by surprise, grabbing the blonde's arm, making her tumble behind, dropping the Doctor's hand.

He quickly turned around and began tugging the mannequin's head, trying to get rid of him. After some struggle, the dummy's head got out with a loud 'POP', and that seemed enough to destabilize it, as he dropped his hands from around the girl. They resumed their running to the TARDIS, which was now in sight.

The Doctor glanced sideways at the girl panting beside him, "I'm the Doctor, by the way. Do you remember your name?"

"Rose."

He grinned and grabbed her hand "Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!"

The mannequins were closing by, but so was the TARDIS. He grabbed a key from his pocket and unlocked the door, tugging Rose inside. They tried to close the door, but one rebellious arm stuck at the doorway. Rose pushed the door closed and the Doctor pushed it out, managing to close the door.

"What the hell were those things?"

"Autons. They're basically living plastic. Yesterday they caused some havoc in one of the malls; I think it was named Henrik's. I thought it had only been a local thing; I guess I was wrong."

Rose watched as he wired the head of the Auton that had grabbed her on the TARDIS' console as he kept talking "Yesterday I manage to get an arm, but it was too simple; I couldn't get a signal. But the head's perfect. I can use this to trace the signal back to the original source."

She nodded, assimilating the information, "And this living plastic, what's it got against us?"

The Doctor's face brightened. She was taking it well so far "Nothing, it loves you! You've got such a good planet! Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air… perfect. Just what the Nestene consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth: dinner."

"But we can't let them have their way, right? They're attacking people outside. Do you- Doctor! The head!"

"What?" he looked at her confused ant then turned around, just to see the white plastic appendix melting. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!"

He rushed and pulled a lever while pressing some buttons. The room seemed to shake a bit, and the Doctor's brow deepened in concentration.

"Come on, girl, follow the signal!" He looked at the screen once more, "It's fading! No, no, no, no! Almost there!"

The TARDIS rattled again, and with a shudder, it seemed to land. Rose raised her head from the banister she was clenching for life, observing how in the place the head had been placed it was a white mass of smoking plastic.

He dashed outside, Rose hot on his heels, and she looked around them; the whole scenery had changed, as they were near a river, and there were definitely less people around. She looked again at the TARDIS, who stood stoic as if she belonged there.

One question came to her mind "The TARDIS, does it fly?"

"Disappears there and then it reappears here; you wouldn't understand. I was so close…" he muttered, looking around him

"And if you're alien, how come you sound like you're from the north?"

At that, the Doctor stopped and looked at her. "Lots of planets have a north!"

"Really though, Doctor. Tell me. Who are you?" _and why do you risk your own life for the sake of other species?_

He exhaled. There was no stopping for her questions, were there? "It's like when you're a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can't quite believe it, 'cause everything looks like it's standing still."

He paused and took her hand "I can feel it... The turn of the Earth, the pass of time, how this planet is falling through space, and how every inhabitant, even you and me, are clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go..."

For a moment, she could feel it. She could feel both of them drifting away, the wind blowing on their faces, and the ground spinning beneath their feet. It all ended when he released her hand, and was soon reminded of what was like to be herself.

"That's who I am. Now, let's find the feeder, okay?"

She nodded, catching her breath "How are you gonna stop it?"

The Doctor took out a vial out of an inside pocket of his jacket "I've got this. Anti-plastic!"

"Anti-plastic?"

"Anti-plastic! But I've got to find it first. Where did they hide a transmitter this big in the centre of London?" he wondered, looking around once more

"What does it look like?"

"Like a satellite dish, I suppose, only much bigger. Something big, round and metal, standing near here… it must be completely invisible…"

Rose looked over the Doctor's shoulder. At the opposite side of the river stood something that she could only describe as a white round wheel. What was it called again? Ah, a Ferris wheel. It was big, round and metal.

"What?" he questioned at her widening eyes. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. The Doctor turned around and then right back "What is it? What?"

She gestured with her head, and he turned around again. That time, he noticed the figure of the London Eye beside the Thames. Oh, she was brilliant.

"Fantastic!"

They ran through the Westminster Bridge towards the metal structure. They could hear the muffed cries of the people in the street, panicking over the attack of the living plastic, and that was enough motivation to make their strides longer. Soon, they were near the London eye.

"Think about it; plastic over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires-"

An image popped up in Rose's mind, one that elicited such an amused reaction that she had to share. "The breast implants."

The Doctor regarded her a look between curious and amused "Anyway, we've found the transmitter. The consciousness must be somewhere underneath." He spotted a manhole. "Gotcha."

He opened the hatch with his screwdriver, and both of them climbed down the ladders. The room was illuminated with an eerie red light, and it was so hot her back dampened considerably.

The big room consisted on two levels, the upper floor, with metal flooring, where they stood, and the lower one, where a big mass of incandescent material was growling and moving.

"The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature." The Doctor whispered, trying not to alert it to their presence

"What are you going to do? It doesn't seem too amiable to me."

"I didn't come here to kill it. I'm going to give him a chance."

Rose observed as the Doctor approached to the edge of the floor and addressed the angry mass, her choosing to stay behind in case the Doctor needed her somehow. He cleared his voice, and every word he spoke seemed to echo in the vast room.

"I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to Convention 15 of the Shadow proclamation."

The mass growled in response, and soon they were both in a heated discussion where she could only understand one end of it, and for the look of it, the Doctor was losing. He said something about a War, and the look on the Doctor's face was heartbreaking. Whatever this War was, it hurt him badly to think of it.

Some mannequins began approaching him, but before she could alert him, two shiny strong arms grabbed her from behind and covered her mouth, muffling her warning.

Two mannequins grabbed both the Doctor's arms, and took out the vial of Anti-plastic from inside his pocket. A small cry left her throat.

"It was just an insurance! I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you, I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy, I swear I'm not." The mass growled something that made him pale. Uh oh.

Suddenly, a light was switched on and another dummy opened a door, only to reveal the TARDIS inside. The Doctor then looked truly frightened "No. Honestly, no." A growl "Yes, that's my ship. That's not true, I should know. I was there; I fought in the War. I couldn't save your world!"

There was that War again, she noted. "Doctor!" she called for him, shaking off the hand covering her face "What's going on!?"

"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified its superior technology, and it's terrified. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose!"

Bolts of energy shot form the growling mass beneath them, and the ground began shaking. She took her chance to get rid of the mannequin that was securing her in place. The Doctor seemed to try it too, but the two figurines seemed to have a tighter grip on him, and they didn't bulge.

"Seriously, Rose, get out! It's the activation signal, it's transmitting!"

She turned around, trying to find a way to help him. There was no way she was abandoning him there on his own. She had no memories, no recollection of job or studies. As far as she knew, she was alone in the world. She needed him, and dare she say it, so did he.

She caught a glimpse of a long heavy-looking chain tied from the ceiling to the railing near her. She took an emergency axe and struck the lock securing it, making it snap in two. She grabbed the chain with both hands and looked at the struggling Doctor, one of the dummies still holding the vial of Anti-plastic.

She clenched her fists "I've got nothing. No job—that I know of—no family—that I remember—nothing for me here. What I do have is a plan. A wild, crazy, possibly fatal plan… but that's all I got. Really hope I've done gymnastics."

She took some steps backwards, then charged at full speed. The ground disappeared from under her feet and she swung directly at the three aliens, hitting the one that was holding the flask. The dummy tumbled forward, falling with the Anti-plastic into the plastic pool, and the reaction was instantaneous; the surface hardened and began to creak.

"Rose!" The Doctor caught her when the chain was returning and helped her steady herself and put her feet back on the ground. The Consciousness began to explode the same moment "Now we're in trouble." The Doctor grinned

He grabbed her hand and they both rushed to the blue box, laughing despite the incoming danger. The door closed behind them, and when the room erupted in flames, the spaceship was no longer there.

.-.-.-.-.-.

It was evening at a secluded part of London when a groaning sound filled an empty street. A blue Police box materialized without anyone noticing, and two people walked out of it.

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy." The Doctor snapped his fingers

"Easy? You were useless down there. You'd be dead if it weren't for me." Rose teased him, her tongue poking out from her teeth. _Was that a habit of hers?_ He pondered. _It was cute._

"Yes, I would. Thank you." he rubbed his nape, uneasy "And sorry… For being a bit harsh at you this morning."

"It's no big deal." Her smile softened.

He looked down at the human before her. She had been very brave; despite her condition, she had maintained a clear mind and asked the right questions, helping him find the trouble before it was too late. She had swung in a rusty chain just to save him!

She had earned with flying colours her place in the TARDIS. The only thing left was her accepting his offer.

"Right! I'll be off… unless, you can come with me. We still know nothing about your whereabouts, so you could stay with me until you find out who you are. What do you say?"

She bit her lower lip "Is it always this dangerous?"

His silence was all the answer she needed.

"I-I can't." she stammered, after a long hesitation. She clearly wanted to, or so he thought (_hoped)_,but she couldn't take the leap. "As you just said, I have no memories whatsoever. You need a person that's ready for action, and I feel I'll just be a burden in your travels. Moreover, I've got a family to find here."

Her words felt like a blow in his gut, but he never left his mask of nonchalance, or so he hoped. He nodded at her apologetic face and made his way to the TARDIS, forcing himself not to turn and look at the human being who had, for just a brief moment, filled the aching emptiness in his mind, hearts, and soul.

"Doctor!" she called back when he opened the door. He turned around to look at her "It doesn't mean it's the last time we see each other, you hear me? It's just a 'see you soon'."

The Doctor managed to crack a little smile at that and nodded again "See you soon, Rose Tyler." The door closed behind him and he moved the TARDIS to the vortex

In the weeks that came, he did what he did best – getting in trouble. He visited the Sheikah tribe, saved a family from the Titanic, and travelled the universe back and forth. However, at the end of the day, being either joyous or miserable, the face of a certain blonde human always popped inside his mind.

He couldn't help but think of how much Rose would've enjoyed the day's particular travels. She would've laughed in delight; gave him a grin, one of those ones with that bit of tongue peeking out—_really, that shouldn't have been as distracting as it was. He was a Time Lord, for Rassilon's sake!_ Rose would've insisted he stopped and saved that family, the one he'd abandoned. Rose…

What was wrong with him? He had long accepted that she wasn't going to travel with him, so why did his mind torture him that much? It wasn't just that, but even the _TARDIS _seemed to miss her.

He was doing some repairs at the console, when his thoughts drifted to the usual place.

She had called herself a burden. Couldn't she see she had been one of the most brave and useful human in London? But he couldn't argue with her wish to find out about who she was. And she wouldn't be able to do that risking her own life so far away from home. She was better without him.

The TARDIS shocked at him in protest, and he shook his hand in pain.

"What was that for!?" he demanded, looking at the ceiling. The TARDIS' lights blinked, and she mentally asked him to stand up.

He obliged grumbling, and she made the monitor spin until it was in front of him. The screen lightened up, and showed the image of the girl occupying his mind; standing alone at the last place he had seen her.

"Why are you showing me that?"

The screen zoomed in closer, and the Doctor could see her sad expression. The coordinates modulator moved on its own accord, fixing the coordinates to that dark alley, one minute after he left.

"What do you want me to do? I already asked her to come, and she didn't want to." The column light blinked, and the image zoomed closer to her face "She refused! I offer her all time and space and she refused! And she has all the right to; she has a family to return to."

The image on the screen changed from her face to a white background. Then, in bold letters, the word 'time' appeared in it. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Time? What does that even have to… oh." His eyes widened, and a small smile tugged the corners of his mouth "_Time…_ of course! Old girl, we've got something to do!"

The screen showed Rose again, that time turning around, ready to leave.

"We can't have that, can we? Let's get going!"

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose stared at the empty road end, more exactly to the place where the TARDIS had stood only seconds ago. The only sound she could hear was her rough breathing.

She messed up.

All the reasons her mind had come up with to refuse the invitation had vanished when the wheezing sound began echoing in the street, and before she could think of telling him she had made up her mind, he had disappeared.

She was alone, damp and cold, she didn't know anyone around here, and the only person she actually knew was who knew where already. She hugged herself, trying to keep herself from shivering, and exhaled a shaky breath.

She could wait here all night to wait for him to return, but she doubted he would even come back for her. He had already offered her to travel with him, and she had said no, so it wasn't likely.

She grimaced at her stupidity, but gathered herself up. It was time to stop moping around. She had lost the best opportunity of her life, so it was time to do as she had said and collect information about herself. If only she knew where to begin…

The wind picked up and a flyer hit her face. She grabbed it annoyed and looked down at it. _Bad Wolf Band? Is that a rock band?_ It was an advertisement about an unknown band, she supposed, and the date was the day after. The address of the pub where it would take place was written down the flyer, so she decided to check it out.

She folded the paper in four parts and kept it in the pocket of her hoodie, and when she was about to resume her walking, a soft, familiar sound — one she'd never expected to hear again — echoed in the street. She turned around, and her smile widened when a blue Police box made herself visible.

The door opened, and the Doctor leaned on the doorway "Did I mention it also travels in time?"

She laughed at that and ran to meet him in a hug. He seemed startled at first, but soon hesitant arms enveloped her.

"You came back!" she exclaimed happily

"I did. I just thought it was a bit rude to leave an amnesiac girl alone in a cold street."

"Thank you." She left his arms and looked to the side, hesitant "Does the… does the offer still stand?"

"Yeah."

Rose smiled at him, a hint of tongue in the corner—_why was he so fixated on that?—_and the bundle of timelines around her began to disappear. That only meant one thing: her future was knotted tight with his own, and he no longer was allowed to watch it. He smiled in response, anticipation pooling in his stomach.

"So, where are we going?"

He grabbed her hand softly – it seemed to fit in his naturally. "I don't know, but I'm sure it will be fantastic."


	3. The end of the World

**Ch. 2. Mad world**

_"Good different or bad different?"_

_"Just different."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Just tell me what do you prefer- future or past?"

Her nose wrinkled as she as deep in thought. After some moments, she answered "Let's go forwards."

"How much?"

"Hmm… I don't know… a hundred years?"

"Only that? Nothing exciting happens in just a hundred years!"

"Well if you can find something more interesting…" she teased

"Deal." He adjusted the destination in the panel and lowered the lever at its right, making them leave the time vortex. Controlling the extrapolator shields, they landed with no more of a soft thud. "Here we are. The origin of the New Roman Empire." He looked at her in awe, but she seemed unimpressed. "What?" he asked

"Just the Roman Empire? We already had one, I studied it at school. What's so interesting?" she said nonchalant, obviously still teasing him.

"Huh, not interesting enough for you, Rose?" an idea popped up in his head "Well, I know just where to take you." He returned again at the controls and settled the new date. Oh this would surely impress her.

They opened ecstatic the door of the TARDIS when they landed and found themselves in an expensive-looking room. The walls were decorated with golden and red patterns, and combined with the furniture it made it look like a five-star hotel.

"Where are we, Doctor?"

He looked at his right, grabbed some sort of remote control and examined it with his sonic screwdriver. He pressed a button and the black wall they had before them began to fade away, letting her see a big –really huge- shiny sun.

"Welcome to the year 5.5/apple/26, the end of the human world as you know it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this is the moment when the sun, in the middle of an expansion process –like all the stars of his age- engulfs the Earth and consumes it."

"And what happens to the human race?" Rose asks, horrified.

"Oh, they are long gone. They have expanded, discovering planets they didn't know they existed in your century and catalogued the old Earth as a natural reserve.

This is the space station 1, where the living beings with more influence can watch how the place of their origin fades away."

"So we are or important influences or extremely lucky."

"I like to think it's both." He grinned "Well, we have half an hour to chill out before it happens."

A noise behind them made them turn around, only to see a blue humanoid going out the ventilation system.

"Huh? Oh, hello, mister and mistress. You were supposed to be in the grand living room. The gift ceremony will start soon."

"Yes, but it was so boring and we like so much a good exploration." He said apologetically, but winked at her in secret. He took out a paper and showed it to the humanoid. "Our invitations. You see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor, she is Rose, my plus one."

"Oh, Mr. Doctor, Ms. Rose, I'm sorry to disturb you. The Face of Boe was waiting for your arrival. If you may follow me, I can show you the way back to the main room, the Bad Wolf."

"Doctor." Rose tugged his leather jacket when their guide was far enough "Why did you show him a white page? And how did you make him believe it was actually an invitation?"

He stopped mid-tracks and waved the paper in front of her, who looked even more confused than before "You see it white? You can see through the psychic paper? Interesting…" he muttered "Well, this is a psychic paper. It shows the people –well most of them, I guess- what I want them to see, in this case the invitation to the event."

The blue alien stopped in front of a big wooden door "Here we are, sir. The other guests have already arrived."

They opened the doors and Rose saw every kind of alien in all shapes and colours, but no humans at all. She looked at him confused and he leaned on her ear "Remember that all of them are human descendants, despite how they look."

One of them caught her attention, so it seemed the Doctor's, because they were walking towards someone that could only be described as a really big face inside a fish tank. He was –kind of- smiling at them when they were by his side.

"Rose, meet the Face of Boe, from the Forest of Cheem and the only one left of his specie. He is the main sponsor of this event, and also an old friend of mine."

_"Doctor, Rose, it's a pleasure meeting you in that special day. I hope we have some spare time to talk about your adventures, my friend. I've heard you have travelled where no one has ever landed a foot to."_

"Of course, but first I have to greet all the other guests. You know, make them think we belong here. By the way, how did you know we were going to appear?"

_"Oh, lucky guess. The Doctor can't miss a special occasion, can you?"_

He grinned "You know me too well. Rose, I'm going to greet all this boring people, do you mind if you stay with him a bit?"

"Sure." She answered. When the Doctor was far away, she eyed the creature in front of her. "Jack."

_"You remember?"_

"No. I only seem to remember your name. Why? When did we meet?"

_"Oh, it has been so long for me, yet it only seems like it was yesterday, when I still had human form, and a charming face. But if you don't know it has to be like that. You have to discover it for yourself."_

She placed a hand on the glass surrounding him "You're not really who you say you are, are you?"

_"Not a bit. I am human, or I was, but you, and the Doctor, can't know that yet."_

"Can you tell me something about myself? I feel so lost…" Rose winced

_"Don't be, my dear. Remember you will never be alone. We'll always have the Blitz and always remember: the Doctor will always find you."_

She sat down beside him "So I guess you know our future versions too, don't you?"

_"Oh, quite well. I'll love you as much as I do now. Even if there was a bit of a competition for your attention, back then" _he chuckled mentally

"Huh?"

They were interrupted as the doors opened and two people dressed like doctors, along with what seemed stretched-out skin, like a trampoline, with eyes and mouth went inside.

"Hello, my dears. I am Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen, the last pure human left. Moisturise me!" she ordered her attendants, who used a water spray in her direction "We are here to see how my beloved planet succumbs against the ferocity of the sun that had enlighten my specie for eons." She made a sobbing noise that sounded too fake

"Because of that, I decided to make this day a celebration, that's why I asked you to bring presents for the other guests. Then we can see how our common culture has changed. I also brought some things from the Earth myself."

They began to give the others their presents, and the Doctor –who had come to Rose's side while Cassandra was speaking- and Rose ended with their arms full of different artefacts. They decided it was better to leave it all in the TARDIS, and Rose looked beside her to Jack when they were leaving, who winked at them in return.

When they went to the room they had landed in, they found the same humanoid, telling them the TARDIS had been moved to the parking station and they had to confirm the moving.

"Stay here, it will be only five minutes." The Doctor said, and before leaving, he grabbed all the presents and kept them inside his never ending pockets.

She waited for him there, watching the sun expand for minutes. It was a beautiful sight, but somehow she felt her heart break a little by the idea of the tiny planet disappearing. That's how every human would feel, right? Even if it was 5 million years in the future, it still was her home.

"Oh dear, what are you doing here?" Cassandra, the skin human, entered the room as if all the space station was hers.

"It was too noisy up there. That planet means a lot for me, so I want to pay my respects for it silently."

"Oh I understand you. If you had lived there you would miss it more, but of course you couldn't have. I am the only one left, after all." She sighed "Can I be with you a little, dear?"

"As you wish." She didn't feel like humouring her, but something told her the bitchy trampoline would do whatever she was pleased with

She sat in silence for some minutes, Cassandra at the same position as before and her little moisturizing puppies behind her standing like statues until Cassandra spat up again, noticing the glances Rose threw at her "Oh, I really know how you are feeling right now, you would like to be like me, wouldn't you? All pure and thin."

"Not really." She shrugged

"Actually, it's more difficult than it seems." She ignored her answer as she continued "I've had seven hundred and eight cosmetic operations to be as I am now, and look at me! All fabulous and without curves -not like you, dear."

"No offense, but I prefer my aspect before yours."

"Oh my uncultured hybrid, aren't you cute? Of course you don't know what perfection is. Moisturise me! Next week is my last operation. Transparent blood, can you imagine it? It will be extraordinary!"

"It's horrible to see that the human race has come to this point." She snapped

She stood up. She would wait for the Doctor somewhere else, where no living skin could annoy her.

"Where are you going?" the trampoline demanded

"I don't enjoy your company, so if you excuse me, I'm going out."

And she was about to open the door of the room when she felt a heavy hit on her head, which made her lose consciousness.

.-.-.-.-.

A tremor woke her up. She stared numb at her surroundings, and found she was at the same room as before, or in one that was very similar, she couldn't really tell. Her head was beating in pain, and the bright light made it difficult for her to open her eyes totally.

"Great." She groaned "Now I'll have a massive headache."

She got up and stumbled towards the door, grabbing the golden and expensive-looking doorknob and trying to turn it right, but it didn't open. She tried doing it again, but the doorknob didn't budge a tiny bit. That was strange…

Another tremor shook the station, and saw how the sun filter of the window began to fade from the bottom of it, allowing a potent ray of sun filter to the room and raise the temperature. Scared, she began to scream and knock the door like crazy, wishing desperately that someone could hear her.

"Rose? Rose!" the familiar voice of the Doctor could be heard beside the door "What are you doing inside there? Open the door!"

"Does it seem like I am here closed up because I want?! The sun filter is failing! Help me, Doctor!" she cried. She heard a wheezing sound behind the door and a curse.

"Remind me later that I have to install a setting for wood! Open!" he hit the door

Her throat constricted and she felt the tears from the back of her eyes. "You say that all the time but you don't actually do it." She answered weaker than she wanted. A strangled voice came from him "Rose, do you believe in me?"

She rested her forehead against the door and closed her eyes. How could she? She only knew that man for less than a day, and most of the time had been related inexplicably to dangerous situations, yet she found herself answering in less than two seconds. "I do."

"Okay. Wait for me, and be sure we will make it from here. We still have to find out who you are."

She heard his footsteps leaving with someone else following him and sat down. The sun was approaching slowly to where she was, and every minute that went through, the heat was even more insupportable.

She prayed for the Doctor, that amazing man that knew too much about the universe they lived, traveling in time and space and saving the day, yet nobody knew about it.

Rose watched how the Earth was near to perish in front of the sun power with narrowed eyes, the sun filter half opened. She took off her T-shirt while she watched it disappear in a mass of fire and a hint of sadness hit her chest.

Closing her eyes, she thought about that it was bloody time for the Doctor to stop it when a thumb resonated in the room, followed by some other ones. Soon enough she saw a hole on the door and a hint of red coming and going, smacking every time the broken wood.

When the door broke open, the Doctor went inside and took her hand, dragging her outside. When she looked behind her, she to find out that the white light was only a feet far from where her knees had been seconds ago.

"Rose! I told you I would save you."

"As always, you are right." She grinned and hugged him

He looked down and frowned "How come that I always find you naked?"

"Oi! Don't stare!" she punched him lightly on the arm "It was bloody hot in here."

"I know." He engulfed her in a hug again "I am glad you are okay. Now, we have to sort some things out." He grabbed her hand and began running.

"What has happened while I was inside?"

"Cassandra has sabotaged the station so she could get an insurance to pay the surgery she wants. When we discovered what she was planning, she teleported herself."

"And I didn't see it? Blimey…"

"Yeah, right? Well, now he have to restart the engines. All the solar screens are disabled. Ready to save some aliens?"

She laughed, adrenalin pumping through her veins "Oh, yes!"

A cough interrupted them "I know we have a few minutes left and it probably isn't important enough, but may I ask where your clothes are?" Jabe, who had come to look for him, asked

"He didn't let me grab it! Now it is probably burning back there."

He huffed and took of his leather jacket. "Here. Put this on. I can't let all the guests see you like this."

"I'm sure they would enjoy it a bit." He tried really hard not to look amused and give her a narrow gaze, but ended up chuckling.

They ran down the corridor and they arrived to an open metallic door. They walked inside, only to see three big fans rotating at full speed.

"Really? Fans?" she deadpanned

"Yeah, I know. Bet they call it _Retro."_

He pulled down a lever and they slowed down, but as soon as he stopped holding it, they restarted their original speed."

"Must be the emergency mode for the rising temperatures. Guess where the control panel is."

"I'll hold it down. You go, Time Lord." As soon as Jabe pulled it down, the temperature raised, and Rose could swear she had seen smoke coming out of her wooden arms.

"Stop it! You will burn!"

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Just stay out of here. Make sure everyone out there is ok. I'm going to do it."

When she parted, he looked at her in the eye "Rose, I am a Time Lord, I will stand it, but even for you it will be too much heat."

"Just make sure to rush." She chuckled lightly. Rose grabbed the lever with her two bare hands, pushing it down. The fans slowed down and the Doctor began marching towards the panel, not after giving her a worried glance.

The heat was insufferable. She began sweating instantly, and as time went by, the metal of the lever heated to the point it burned her hands. She muffled her screams of pain and continued holding it.

Her vision was blurred, and when she let go and was about to fall, two strong arms caught her from behind, securing her.

"Oh, Rose, you have been very brave. Let's get you some water and take care of this burns, okay?"

She nodded numbly, and let him carry her to the main room. He opened the door and walked inside, where all the guests were complaining about the situation they had been put through. When she saw them, Jabe rushed towards them, and the other guests left their conversation unfinished.

"Oh my god, bring some ice and water! Rose, are you okay?" she nodded again, feeling grateful when something cold touched her too warm hands. A glass of water was placed in her lips and she drank slowly.

"Someone has injured my companion, and I am very, very angry. And when I am angry I think better. Part one: Cassandra has teleported herself with two other living beings. Point two: teleporting at 5000º it's really difficult, costs a lot of energy, so she would have used some kind external energy, a teleportation feed, which will be here, hidden somewhere, probably in one of her gifts."

He broke the ostrich egg, and a metallic object fell to the floor "Oh, here it is. And point three: if you are as clever as me, we can reverse it, which I have done just now."

There was a blue flash and Cassandra appeared in front of their eyes, speaking to the air.

"…You should have seen their faces… Oh. Why am I here?"

"I brought you back."

"What for? Oh, you want justice… that is so hybrid-like. You won't have it, though. You can't touch me, I am pure."

"No, I won't touch you. I am a peaceful man, I don't like to hurt any other living beings, but let me ask you something… Where are your assistants?"

She looked around, scared, and her skin begins to dry and crack because of the residual heat. She begged for mercy, but the Doctor looked at her impassive. Her skin stretched and she exploded, only leaving her brain tank.

Rose caught his eye and looked longingly at him, trying to give him the reassurance he secretly needed at the moment. He wasn't willing to admit how painful it was to let her die, even if she deserved it, and she knew that.

He walked by her side and examined her swollen hands, the redness lowering as the ice made its effect. He took out his screwdriver and pointed at them, calming the pain.

The Face of Boe stood by their side as the guests were leaving.

"I guess it's the time for you two to go. It has been nice meeting you despite the circumstances, Doctor, Rose Tyler."

"Always a pleasure, my friend." He nodded and went away, Rose leaning on his side.

Inside the TARDIS, he treated her injured hands once again, and he didn't stop until the skin was rosy and shiny. He put his screwdriver back to his pocket and gave her a glass of water. She was really thankful she could hold it this time.

The Doctor suddenly stopped his actions and looked at her awestruck "Wait. Did he call you Rose Tyler?"

"So it seems." She smiled and looked away, thanking him mentally

"Is that your name?"

"… Maybe. I don't really know, but it feels _right_." She shrugged "So… the end of the Earth… and everyone was so occupied trying to survive to see it happening." She sighed

"I lost my home planet too." He found himself saying "Not in the future, but in my timeline. It was burned in a war."

He now realized why he had taken her there. He had subconsciously been trying to test her, let her face his situation, surrounded of strangers and alone, watching his home planet burn, like he did.

It had been too cruel, now that he thought about it, but could you blame him? He had just lost his everything, even if he didn't like the other Time Lords all that much. He needed someone who could comprehend that, no questions asked.

So when she took his hand between her soft warm ones, he suddenly felt some of the heavy burden he carried lift of his shoulders.

She smiled "You still have me." She squeezed his hand.

He grinned "We can go to five minutes in the past and see it from here. You know, the Earth thing."

"Nah." She dismissed it "I don't think I could handle it again. And right now I would really like to feel cold for a change."

They landed in London again. When they went out, she smelled the air like a hound and smiled

"Is that chips what I smell?"

"It seems so."

"I really feel like eating some. And as it seems like I saved your alien ass again, they are on you!"

He stared at her hopelessly "I don't have any money!"

"What? Oh my, what a terrible date you are. Okay, they are on me, but I'm not returning this jacket anytime soon." And with a tongue-between-teeth smile she turned around and ran away from the TARDIS to the chips shop. The Doctor, shaking his head, but with a smile plastered on his face, followed that yellow and pink human.

He could get used to this.

**I hope you liked it! Next week I'm publishing the first interlude and in two weeks the next chapter. When I wrote this part of the story I skipped Dickens' chapter as I couldn't think of a way to change anything significant, but if you really want to read it you can tell me in the reviews section! If not, the story will continue in Aliens of London.**

**See all of you soon!**


	4. Interlude 1

**Publishing this a bit earlier than expected because I won't have internet on Saturday night. Enjoy!**

**.-.-.-.-.-.**

**Interlude 1.**

They were seating on the TARDIS floor, their feet hanging loosely in the vast space. He had taken her to see the Omega Nebula and she was looking at it in awe. It was an explosion of colour in the dark of the universe and she got captivated by it at first sight.

"I settled the TARDIS in gravitation around it, I want to show you something. You see, this nebula is known with so many names, but one of them is more accurate than the others. We just have to wait until we have the good perspective…" he pointed at a formation near the centre "Now, do you see it?"

She stared at it lost at first, but after some time she found what he was talking about. The back of an animal looking up at the big oval light above him. She smiled widely.

"It's a wolf?"

"Yep." He grinned, popping the p "It's known as the lonely wolf, as it pictures the animal looking up the sky waiting for the full moon. Quite a romantic idea, isn't it? Many species have grown up looking at the majesty of this sky formation, and its story has spread out to every part of time and space."

"It's beautiful…" she sighed contently

They looked at it until she could no longer define the wolf's silhouette, but she stayed mesmerized at the view.

"Do you like it?"

"Very much. Is there a story for it?"

"Well, there are always legends about this things, depending on which planet you land or the time you ask."

"Tell me." She asked with a sweet smile plastered on her face

"Well, there are a great amount of myths. Some of them talk about a bad wolf punished by the gods to always wait for the full moon, but it the moon would stay at the same phase; others talk about the wolf and the moon being lovers but carrying the burden of just seeing each other one day every lunar cycle." He sighed "Almost all of them are sad stories, I'm afraid."

She sat pensive for some minutes before she spoke up again "I don't see it like this. The wolf, despite being bad or alone, will always have the moonlight to accompany him. He has what is more important to him and because of that he takes care of her, not averting his eyes out the night sky for an instant."

He observed her in admiration "How do you manage to see the brightest side of everything?"

"Natural gift?" She joked

He laughed. He took his almost finished mug of tea and took a sip "Actually, I wanted to ask you something. The other day you told me you had studied the Roman Empire at school. Did you remember it?"

"Oh." She frowned "I didn't give it much thought. I guess I remembered."

"Just like that?"

"Mm it's a bit more complicated than that. I sometimes have flashes of memories, but nothing too extended, only tiny details like what I said before. Moreover, I often end up forgetting them again, so it's not very useful, is it?"

He rummaged it for a while "Maybe is a sign of your memories returning? You may end up catching bigger glimpses at the future."

"I guess."

He grabbed the empty mugs lying on the floor and stood up "Well, end of the chit chat. It's time for humans sleep." She pouted and he put on a stern face "Then don't come at me tomorrow like a zombie because you slept less than you had to."

"And what about Time Lords sleep?" she teased

"I don't need to sleep nearly as much as you do." She stayed on the floor stubbornly, making him sigh exasperated "Come on, if you go to your room I'll make you a mug of hot chocolate."

She smiled and hugged him "You're a star. Please, put three marshmallows inside. The ones we bought at that candy planet."

He rubbed his head as he watched her go. What a strange human he had bumped into, making him go all… _soft _for being listened. It should be a burden, as he was accustomed to everyone obeying every command he said.

He found he didn't mind at all.


	5. Aliens of London

**Ch. 3 You're not alone**

_"Gwen, how do you…" she said, scared of her hazed eyes_

_"Beware of the Bad Wolf, Rose, or it's going to bite you."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose was lying on her bed, analysing what she could remember about the dream. There had been a golden light engulfing her, and some black eyes staring at her. Her melodious voice talked about time and space, but she couldn't recall the exact words. _My wolf_, she had called her.

She had mentioned Jack, the one who would help her, and someone that needed her support in her future, but in everyone's past. Then, she was surrounded by that light again, and the last thing she saw was an indigo sky full of stars.

She sat down as the details of the dream began to fade away. It had been two weeks since she had appeared at that exact room, disoriented. Then she didn't know anything about herself, now… well she hadn't learnt much more.

Shrugging off her worries, she stood up and put some clothes on, her comfortable jeans and a spare sleeveless T-shirt the TARDIS put inside her wardrobe. She had braided her hair, so her face was clear if they had to run.

They had only landed twice since the Cassandra incident, and she already felt how the Doctor was craving for action despite he hid it, worried by her condition. Well, she was getting bored of not landing in such a long time, so she'd only have to convince him otherwise.

She opened the door and went to the kitchen of the spaceship, which was the first corridor left, then walking all the corridor turning right, crossing the console room and the first door at the right. However, she had to make a stop at the console room, as she heard a strange sound.

Kneeling down, she saw the Doctor lying on the floor adjusting something at the console. She heard a wheezing sound of complain and an escape of gas directed to his face.

"Ouch! That burns!"

"What are you doing?" she found herself asking

"Oh Rose, you awake? I'm trying to modulate the settlement of the temporal and special location, as she seems to drives us where she wants. But she doesn't let me." A spark hit his hand and he jumped

"Maybe she just wants to bring us where we need to be."

He scoffed "Or maybe it's just that she wants to play around with me, a more plausible option. I don't know why I installed a random lever, then."

"There had to be one, hadn't it?" she grinned, her tongue poking out.

He chuckled and cleaned his greasy hands with a rag "Of course! Sometimes is funnier when you don't know where you're going."

She laughed "I've got the feeling it happens to you quite often, even if you don't use that lever."

"Oi!" he scolded, but a smile escaped from his stern face. His eyes glittered with malice "Do you want to try it now?"

"Only if you invite me to breakfast where we go." She grinned

"Deal. Grab onto something, we're going!" he stood up and pulled the grey lever down.

The TARDIS hummed in satisfaction as they left the time vortex and travelled again, as if she was just as anxious as her inhabitants to be landing again. When they landed, the Doctor grabbed his leather jacket, which was resting on one of the corals of the wall, and put it on.

"Wait, you have a black taint in your cheek."

He tried to whip it off with a piece of cloth, but made the stain worse "Here, lemme help you." She grabbed the cloth and rubbed it with care on his face, cleaning it. She smiled and looked for other ones "Done. Your face is clean now. Should we go?"

They opened the door and watched doubtful the outside. A newspaper landed nearby, moved by a sudden rush of air. She grabbed it and read the date. "London, 23rd February 2006. A random place in time and space, all the possibilities, and she land us here?"

He looks at the horizon, frowning. "Such a coincidence, right? Anyway, Rose Tyler, do you want to have a walk?"

"Sure." She grabbed his arm and they walked outside, closing the door behind them. She took the newspaper with them, and opened it to read the main headings.

"Huh? The Prime Minister is missing…"

"What?" he grabbed the newspaper "That's strange…"

"ROSE!" someone shouted her name behind them. They turned around, and saw a man with dark skin and hair running in their direction. He stopped in front of them, gasping for air "You had me bloody worried here. You've been away eight months."

"Em… I know it's a bit tactile question, but do I know you?"

He looked at her horrified "You mean… you don't remember me?"

"I'm sorry but…"

"But it's obvious you know her." The Doctor interrupted "It happens that she has recently lost her memories, so it would be very helpful if you tell us something about her."

The information slowly sank down in his mind as he nodded slowly "Okay, I know a good café here. By the way, I'm Mickey Smith."

They went to a little coffee shop near the park and sat down in a table near the window, Rose and the Doctor together at one side, and Mickey in front of them. They ordered two coffees and a chocolate milkshake for the Doctor, who smiled when he noticed he had extra frosting.

"So," Mickey began "I don't really know a lot about her, I met her like a year ago at a bar. She was the bartender and stood before me when one rich bastard tried to provoke me. We have been friends since then, and I used to visit her at the bar when I finished my classes at the Uni."

"And what happened later?"

"She just… vanished, as if she hadn't existed at all. One day I was with her ant the other one the bar has a new bartender and the manager doesn't remember a 'Rose Tyler' working there. That was last year."

"But what about me? What do you know?"

"Not pretty much. I know you're an orphan and you live somewhere at Powell State. You knew someone there, but I don't remember her name… You like dogs and your favourite food is everything that has chocolate in it and chips. I'm sorry I can't help you more."

"Okay… at least we have something more, Rose."

"Yeah, thank you, Mickey."

"Well, we have confirmed you live in this planet. It's a good place to start."

"In this… what?" Mickey asked. Suddenly, a loud sound echoed in the little establishment, making the windows vibrate so hard Rose thought they would break. She leaned forward to protect herself, and felt the Doctor above her, protecting her as well. Then, she saw something white cross the sky in an exhalation, leaving a white dust behind it. Some seconds after it was out of their sight, they heard a loud crash.

Someone turned on the TV and saw the oncoming news. They explain that a UFO had crashed into the river, damaging in its way the Big Ben, which had been in its trajectory. There was an occupant in what happened to be a spaceship, even the press was denying it, and they had taken him to the nearest hospital, where they were doing they research.

"I have to go there. God knows what they are going to do to the poor creature. You stay here with Ricky."

"Nuh-uh." She grabbed the sleeve of his jacket "You don't leave me here."

He stared her down, but gave up "_Fine._ Let's go, we're taking the TARDIS. Ricky is not coming."

"_Mickey _is."

"Who?"

"He." She pointed at the confused boy in front of them

"Do as you please. But don't let him touch anything. If he messes up with the controls I'll…" the rest of the sentence was muffled as he walked out the shop, leaving them behind.

"What is a 'TARDIS'?"

"The short version of Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Look, it's easier if you see it by yourself." She grabbed his hand and pulled him, making him walk faster. They went outside the establishment just before the Doctor turned right.

They ran after him until they saw the blue box at the distance. She smiled for herself, already feeling that tingling sensation inside her. They slowed their pace when he stopped in front of the wooden door, expectant to be opened.

When they caught up with him, he went inside, not waiting for them anymore. Rose rushed after him and heard a gasp beside her. She turned around and saw Mickey, eyes as big as balloons, staring around him. He went outside.

"Does everybody do the same as I did?"

"Well, there are several variations of it, but all of them finish with the sentence-"

"It's bigger on the inside!" the Doctor and Mickey, who had returned, said in unison, the Doctor nonchalant and Mickey in amazement.

"Can we go now? I'm worried about that alien." He told Mickey abruptly

"Sure, sure… if there's a way to ride that… thing."

"Don't call her a _thing _or you will stay here, Ricky boy."

"It's _Mickey."_

"Are you suggesting that I lied about knowing your name?" he answered offended

"Aye, aye, captain." Rose said playful "Shall we start navigating? An alien awaits for us!"

The Doctor looked at her and smiled before pulling up a lever.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Meanwhile, Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North was told discretely, if not a bit forceful, to piss off and to mind her own business when she demanded an audience with the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street. Indignant for the lack of information and the bad reception, she decided that for the sake of her citizens she may know the truth behind all this.

When the man in black suit disappeared from her sight, she snuck up where the meeting room was and put her request on the Prime Minister suitcase, only to see a red archive where she could read "Code nine" written on it.

When she heard voices behind her, she hid on the nearest wardrobe, as she wasn't supposed to be there. What she saw affected her in a way she didn't know it was even possible.

Green and Blaine walked inside the room with General Asquish. They shared some complaints about the flatulence that caused one thing they called an "organic capsule". Then, after exchanging words she couldn't understand, they _unzipped _their foreheads, turning out to be some ugly green creatures with big black eyes, surprising her and the General, who was discussing with the… thing before they had showed their true form.

They killed him in front of her bare eyes, and dropped the dead and empty body of someone the alien was impersonating in the same wardrobe she was hiding in, but luckily they didn't notice her. She stared at them, paralyzed in fear and disgust.

The secretary, the one who had told her not to come here before, came back. He told the aliens, then in their human costumes, that they had received signals of the Doctor, the expert of all the extra-terrestrial situations and creatures. The Doctor, the only way this atrocities would be punished.

The green things said they had to initiate the protocol to find him. If only she could find him first…

When it was clear, she left her hiding place, rushing down the stairs, escaping for her near death experience and determined to find the only man who could help them.

She had to find the Doctor before it was too late.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The TARDIS arrived to the hospital, and they landed on a maintenance room, as it is full of mopes and brushes that the Doctor tried to wipe off impatiently.

"Okay," the Doctor said, after scanning the air with his sonic screwdriver "It's… that way- no, this way." They turned left and opened the door, then entered a room which had to be empty, yet it was full of soldiers, a mixture of anger and disbelief. They all grabbed their weapons, and were staring at them warningly when a loud shriek echoed the room. He smiled and they began running.

"Defence Delta, come with me. The last two, stay in the room we were, maybe someone needs help. Rose, Ricky, stay by my side all the time, understood?" all of them nodded, and some replied. Soon, they arrived where the voice was coming from, only to find a woman standing there alone having a panic attack.

"It's alive…" she murmured

"Spread out. Don't allow anybody to come here."

"Oh my god, it's still alive!"

"Hey, calm down." Rose caught her hand "What does he look like?"

They heard a faint shriek behind them, similar to the sound a pig does. They turned around and went to the dark corridor.

"He's still here." they saw some paws and metallic colour ahead. It was, literally, a pig wearing a white and silver spacesuit, but she had seen a lot of different kinds of odd aliens, who was she to think this one wasn't one of them?

The Doctor smiled "Hello there." But the creature escaped, too afraid to let anybody, even if they had good intentions, to come near him.

He stood up and began running without grace, turned left, and then they heard a loud shoot. They ran as fast as they could, and found the creature gasping for air on the floor.

"Why did you shoot? He was scared!" he kneeled down and caressed its fur "He was so scared…"

"It landed here. It bloody crashed against the Big Ben. It became a public security issue." The captain of the Defence Delta said "Anyway, who are you?"

"He's the Doctor, the alien expert." Rose said confidently "And we are his assistants. And as it seems, you really do need one."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Later at the lab, Dr Soto was looking at the corpse of the creature amazed.

"I just assumed it was how aliens looked like, but you say it is just a pig? Form earth?"

"More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to attract the crowd by sticking the head of a cat to a fish and calling it a mermaid. Now someone's taken a pig, opened up his brain, added some things and then they tied him up to that spaceship and made it dive with it. Must have been terrifying…"

She looked at the poor creature closely "So you say that all of this is a fake montage? And why would anyone want to do that?" She turned around, but the three people that had been making her company seconds ago seemed to have vanished in the air. She looked around, confused, before keeping doing her research on the pig corpse.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Doctor, what are we doing?"

"I need some more advanced technology. So we have found that the alien wasn't an alien, but the spaceship _was _a spaceship. Now, if I were an alien that wants to land on the Earth discretely, why would you plan all this masquerade?"

He adjusted some wires of the monitor in front of him. "Now! We can't see which trajectory the spaceship followed with its radar, because it's soaking wet and probably broken, but I have reversed the radar of my dear TARDIS 12 hours so we can see it here. Now, Rose, tell me what you see."

She studied the diagram "It lands two times."

"Yep. It lands, spends some time here, it takes off, goes round the Earth and lands again, crashing into one of the most emblematic symbols of the city."

"But why would they do this? They are attracting a huge attention to the incident, there's no way it isn't prejudicial for them, is it? Why would they want to do such a silly thing?"

"Maybe if they want to drag the attention…" suddenly, he snapped his head up and grinned "Oh, it's fantastic, you're fantastic, Rose Tyler." He kissed her forehead. "We have to leave the TARDIS. It drags too much attention."

They opened the door, but they found they were surrounded by police and helicopters. "Doctor! Move away from the TARDIS, now!" Mickey, taking advantage that they were focused in the two before him, ran away, and the Doctor and Rose were arrested.

They were sitting on a comfortable limousine, and Rose looked dumbfounded at the Doctor, who seemed at ease.

"Why are we on a limousine? I thought we were arrested." She said, looking through the window

"Nah, we are being escorted."

"Where to?"

"10 Downing Street."

She raised her head "The Prime Minister's Downing Street?"

"The same one."

She stares at him in silence just before breaking in laughter, which he soon followed. "Oh, god, there's no time to get bored with you, is it?"

"None of it." He grinned

When they arrived, Rose looked at her surroundings, too afraid to touch a single thing only to break it. A lot of people were congregated there, talking in small groups.

"Doctor," a man wearing a black suit approached them "I have your permit to the conference. I must say, it's an honour to meet you."

"Yeah, sure, the pleasure's mine and all that stuff. C'mon, Rose."

"Wha- Wait! She can't go in there."

The Doctor merely shrugged his shoulders "You can pretend you didn't notice."

"H-hey, even I am not allowed to be in there. It's a public security meeting, and almost no one is allowed to assist."

"I'm not going leaving Rose behind, unprotected."

Then, a woman about in her forties approached them "Hello, I'm Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North." She said, showing an accreditation "If you want, I can stay with her while you clear your duties inside."

Rose smiled "Yeah, Doctor, don't worry about me. I'll be fine with her."

Not totally happy about the situation, he let go of her hand and grabbed his ID. He looked at her moments before going inside the little room where they were having the conference.

"So," Harriet said, cup of tea in hand "Your Doctor is The Doctor?"

She looked at her suspiciously, aware of how directly she had asked, demonstrating that she knew he wasn't an ordinary man.

"I need your help –the world needs it. Oh what I've seen. There so many possibilities you don't believe me, but I know what I saw. Come with me, if you see it you'll understand me."

Then, at the Cabinet Room, she shows her the lifeless body of the Prime Minister and the _skin_ of Green.

"They've killed them. The aliens, that big green creatures with black eyes, and they are hiding inside the bodies of the most important people in Britain."

Rose grabbed her shoulders worried "We have to alert the Doctor. He's in danger." Just as this words parted from her lips, they heard the screams coming from downstairs.


	6. World War III

**Ch.4. Aliens in London**

_"Who are you?"_

_"I don't even know." _

.-.-.-.-.-.

She jumped up, startled and hurried to the door, Harriet soon following her, but as she opened the door, she nearly bumped to a big ball of green alien fat and big round eyes.

"Whoa, you're as ugly as Harriet told me." She blurted out without thinking. As the alien raised an arm, she grabbed the terrified politician's hand and ran away from him… her… it?

They ran down the corridors of 10 Downey Street, crossing rooms and corridors without end, the alien following them near. She could swear they had crossed the same corridor like four times, and the persecution would have looked like one of that shown at comedy films from the outside. Weird thought to have when being followed by someone that wanted to kill them.

Then, some time after, she could see stairs in front of her. Harriet, panting behind her, pointed at them.

"Rose, there are some rooms around that have some kind of security as I've heard. Maybe we can find one upstairs where we could hide until everything finishes."

"No!" she protested "I'm not leaving the Doctor alone dealing with them. He needs as much help as possible." She panted, running out of energy

"But we won't be able to help him if we get killed by that fat thing! Only until he finds us." She pleaded

She looked at her and nodded, conceding. The stairs were approaching, so was the angry green creature behind them. She let go Harriet's hand and turned around. "Run! I'm going after you in an instant." She ran towards the alien, missing her reply. The attacker, confused, slowed its pace, clearly what she was seeking. Using the impulse of her speed, she tackled it, making it stumble and fall to the floor.

She regained her equilibrium and began running again to the stairs, blocking the door leading to them with a chair she found nearby. She knew it wouldn't last very long, but it would give them the time they needed.

She went upstairs and found Harriet there, relieved to see her face again. She grabbed her hand and began running, the sound of hits and scratching already on the door.

"Quickly, we don't have time. Where are that special rooms?"

She shivered "I have no idea."

"Perfect." She said with sarcasm she spotted one big office in front of her and ran towards it. In that kind of place it was more likely to be some hiding spots, wasn't it? There, they saw one big closet in front of them.

"It's a bit cliché, isn't it?" she found the fun in the situation

"It's the only thing we have right now."

So they went inside and tried to steady their breath, worried to make a sound. A minute after they came in, the alien entered the room, sniffing the air. _Don't tell me he's a bloody dog _she thought more annoyed than afraid, and when two of them joined it, she nearly groaned in disgust. Could they be that unlucky?

"Humans… don't try to hide from usss. We can sssmell that ape ssscent of yoursss… your fear…" they laughed they scanned the room. One of them stood in front of their hiding place and they contained their breath.

Smiling –or what could be understood in that green and round face- it opened the door, soon to be engulfed in a white smoke that came behind them. They shrieked and she found the opportunity to leave that goddamn closet. She saw the Doctor's face before her and grinned, giving him a quick hug and grabbed the hand that wasn't occupied with a fire extinguisher.

"You don't know how glad I am to see your face right now."

He wiggled his eyebrows and swung his fire extinguisher proudly "Didn't I tell you I am very good at rescuing dames in distress?" he grinned. He started running, never dropping her hand

"And with the most unexpected tools. Are you this MacGyver guy or something?" She laughed relieved

"I won't say I didn't inspire the screenwriters when I stopped an alien invasion with just a clock and a rope." He raised an eyebrow and grinned

"The Doctor being impressive as always…" she teased

Harriet, on the other hand, looked annoyed at the silly couple in front of her "Could you two stop flirting and be centred in the issue that matters most? There are three aliens following us."

"We weren't… how could you…" after the amused glance of Rose and the annoyed one of Harriet, he closed his mouth "Okay. I shut up. So… 10th Downing Street. Centre of UK government –Well, in this century-. There, we have to find some Emergency protocols against alien invasion, most likely in the Cabinet Room. Harriet, do you know something about it?"

"I did see a red folder with the words 'code nine' printed on it. There are also some rumours that there are special rooms with a protection mechanism."

"Yep, this is it. To the cabinet room!"

They ran downstairs and hurried towards the room, the threat following them short. Just as they were going inside, the Doctor grabbed a transparent and rectangular bottle containing a brown liquid inside, resting on the table and faced them, screwdriver in hand.

"I wouldn't make one more step if I were you. I have in my hand a 50% solution of ethanol, which is a very flammable compost, isn't it? But what would happen if I triplicate that characteristic, hm?" the three green living beings flinched "So now that we are clear, I would be very pleased if you could answer some questions. Who are you? And why do you want to invade this planet?"

The alien in the middle made a tentative step forward "Very simple, _Doctor. _We are the Slitheen, from Raxacoriocofallapatorius." He answered, his voice metallic due to the translator device.

"I wasn't aware there was a species in Raxacoricofallapatorius named Slitheen." He frowned

"It's not the name of a specie but a family name. We travel through the stars, visiting different planets and obtaining benefits of them. You should know what this is, as you protect the human race with passion."

"Which kind of benefit could you obtain in that forgotten rock in the middle of nowhere? It doesn't have sense!"

"Oi!" both women protested

"It's true." He dismissed "The most advanced cultures are million light years from here."

"So," the Slitheen on the right said, ignoring the Doctor's questions "You say you can triplicate the flammability of the alcohol with that device?"

"Yes I do." He nodded

"I don't believe you can."

He grinned "It was worth the try." And suddenly he reached to a hidden button behind a curtain nearby, closing immediately the door and windows with heavy looking steel.

"Ha! They didn't expect that!"

"What is it?" Asked Rose

"It's a special feature of the cabinet room. This rooms holds meetings of the most important men of the country, so it's normal they had a maximum security system." He examined the closed windows "Three-inch steel walls, resistant to most of short-reach attacks, and also to three aliens."

"So they can't come inside?"

"Nope."

"Great! And how do we go out?"

His grin rapidly faded from his face as he realized it "_Oh._"

.-.-.-.-.-.

Some moments later, the Doctor was clearing the two corpses inside the cupboard because of the disgusted face Rose was doing, despite she tried to hide it. He grabbed his metallic screwdriver and examined the windows, cursing under breath.

"It's no use." Harriet muttered, dropping the paper she had been reading until then "Everyone in this file classified as people we must contact in danger is already dead."

"We can't open that doors either. There must be some kind of secret protocol or system to open it, but my screwdriver doesn't seem to detect it."

"So it seems we are really trapped, isn't it?" Harriet sighed

"What I keep wondering is, how did they fit inside smaller human skins? They're like six feet tall." Rose asked

"Did you notice they are wearing a black collar? Besides being a translator device it is a compression field, which shrinks them down so they can fit, only with a bit of flatulence in exchange."

She made a face "Eww, so that's why they smell that bad… But why didn't they use the Prime Minister's body, then? They would have avoided people inquiring his disappearance."

He clicked his tongue "He was too small. Even with the compression field they are huge, so they have to find bodies as… huge as them."

She grinned "We could make such a big amount of money with that devices…"

"Hey!" protested Harriet "We are dealing with an alien invasion here."

"Sorry. It's just that being around him makes you get used to this kind of things." She sat on the table and pointed at him while he was too distracted with the walls around them. Then he turned around and looked at them.

"There's another thing that I keep wondering. Harriet Jones, why does that name sound so familiar? Are you famous or something?"

"No of course not. I'm just an MP in Flydale North, nothing too important. So could we actually move to the important issue here? As how do we stop all those crazy green monsters that are trying to get the British Government?"

"Right, because there is one more thing I have no clue about. Why are they doing this? They are a family, not a species, so they aren't looking for a place to colonize, but to obtain benefits. They have travelled more planets, as they have said, but why…?"

At this moment, a beep echoed the isolated room. The three of them looked at each other with confusion before the Doctor addressed Rose.

"It's your phone."

She looked at him dumbfounded "I have a phone?" she put her hand in her right pocket and pulled it out "God I do have one!"

"You didn't know it? You left it at the console room, and I thought you wanted me to configure it."

"Really? Wait, I've received a message from Mickey." She opened it and her eyes snapped open "Doctor it's a Slitheen!" she rapidly pressed the call button and put the phone next to her ear. "Mickey! Where are you? Where is the Slitheen?"

An afraid male voice replied "I've locked him in the living room, unconscious, but it's only temporary."

"Doctor…"

He looked at her and nodded, telling her to put the free hands "Okay, we're uncommunicated but he's not. Do you have your laptop near?" he said, addressing to Mickey

"Yes."

"Okay. You have to go to the UNIT website and log in. Use the password "Buffalo."

After some moments, he spoke again "It's loading. How are you two? Is it secure there? Is Rose okay?"

The Doctor didn't answer and Rose was about to answer for herself when a big crash could be heard from the other side of the line.

"What was that?" she cried

"The alien must be awake. I'm inside UNIT, what do I do now?"

"Okay. Listen carefully because there's no time left. The TARDIS detected they were pulsing out a signal into the space, but I hadn't time to decipher it. Click on the radar that is on the upper corner on the left and tell me if you receive it as well."

"Yeah! I do!"

"Okay, raise the volume so I can decipher it."

A loud crash, which sounded stronger than the one before made them jump.

"Crap! He's breaking the door!"

"Okay, let's leave the signal for later, we have to find one way to win against them. Let's see… they are from Raxacoricofallapatorius. They are big, green and fat… what more?

"They have this shortening thingy?" Rose added

"More!"

"Big black eyes and claws!" Harriet participated

"MORE!"

"Their gas smell funny… like…" the blonde frowned, trying to place her rambling thoughts

"It smells like halitosis… Calcium decay! They are made of calcium!" The Doctor cheered

"DOCTOR!" he cried as the door crushed open

"Vinegar! Throw him vinegar! The acetic acid should react with his body and make him dissolve. With some luck." He muttered so Mickey wouldn't hear him.

Some moments of tension later, Mickey picked up the phone "It didn't dissolve, Doctor. It exploded. I'm covered of Slitheen." He said with some venom in his voice, all covered in green mucus

"Don't worry, it'll wash off. Now put the signal again. What is that noise?"

"The TV. I somehow switched it on when I was trying to stay alive. Wait, there's the former Prime Minister." He approached to the TV so it could be better heard from the phone.

"… I've been informed that the aliens have massive weapons of destruction, with capacity to kill the human race in 45 seconds, controlled above our ignorant heads! This is the final challenge, the natural demonstration of our power as defenders of our home, the Earth! So against this direct and dangerous threat, as a defendant of the human race, I personally beg the United Nations to pass a resolution and release the access codes to launch our weapons. We should defend ourselves against the conquerors."

All the pieces of the puzzle fell into their place and he stared at them with wide eyes "That's it! That's what they were looking for when they faked the crash! They wanted to spread the panic of a possible invasion, them being protected behind the faces of the most important personalities of the Government. Then, the UN, afraid, would give them the codes and they would have access to the missiles, which they would launch them not into space but against other nations. Oh, I have been so stupid… They want to start the World War III."

"But why would they do that?"

"Oh, how about we ask them?" the doors opened, showing a Slitheen that was waiting outside.

"Doctor, tired of playing hide and seek?"

"Do not move one bit. We have acetic acid. Now, tell us, why do you want to start a war?"

He sneered "Pretty easy. Them, stupid humans, so reckless, have invented such marvelous things, like nuclear bombs. What would happen if they use them against one another?"

"The planet would be completely destroyed, no Earth living forms would be able to survive, with the accumulation of radiation… Oh no you didn't."

"What's going on?" Rose asked, lost again at the exchange of words between the aliens

"They will sell radioactive pieces of Earth as a fuel source. They don't want this planet – they want the money they could obtain from it."

"They won't do that!" Rose replied horrified

The Slitheen laughed "And who will be able to stop us?"

"Me." The Doctor answered before the metallic doors closed again.

.-.-.-.-.-.

As morning took over, the Doctor was walking through the door, trying to come up with a solution to the problem they were in. He was unable to open the door again, and even if he could, there was also the Slitheen problem to take care off. He cursed under his breath.

An idea popped into his head, but he discarded it quickly. He wasn't sure it would be effective, and it was too dangerous. He would have taken the risk before but…

He looked at Rose, his new companion, sitting on the table looking at Harriet. It had been only two weeks since she had appeared inside his TARDIS, but it seemed she had already earned a place there. She had fought, shown a bravery he had never seen before in a human, yet she was benevolent with every living been they encountered. No, he couldn't risk her safety. He doubted he could really do that from now on.

She met his eyes "'S everything alright?"

"Yes." He answered before turning his eyes down, pretending he was programming his sonic.

"Doctor!" Ricky-Mickey called from the phone, the call still on "Now what do we do?"

"I… don't know."

"What do you mean? You can say that! There must be something you can do!"

"Yes there is!" he snapped "Of course there is one! There's always something that can be done, but it doesn't mean it's the best solution, even a solution at all."

"What's the matter?" Rose stood up and walked towards him

"There is one thing we can do. One tiny thing that if it goes right it could save the world, but… but I could lose you in the process… I could _lose_ you, Rose…" he looked up at her, the hurt that had desperately tried to hide shining in his deep blue orbs. He clenched his fists, avoiding her intense gaze

"Doctor." She smiled and touched his shoulder, making him rise his eyes upon her "Don't worry about me. Let's save the world."

"Doctor," Harriet stood up and looked at him "As the only elected representative of the United Kingdom here in this room, I order you to take option. For the sake of my citizens."

"… Rose?" he asked reluctantly one more time

"Do it."

He looked longingly in her eyes and nodded, ruffing his short hair with his hands as he stood up. He grabbed Rose's phone and spoke to Mickey "Okay, Mickey, are you still inside the UNIT website?"

"Yes."

"Good. Now listen closely, we have to do this before the UN gives Green the codes of the nuclear weapons. You have to get access to the Royal Navy's systems with the password Buffalo."

"I'm in. what do I have to look for?"

"Is there any ship or submarines at the radar?"

"Mmmh… Yes! There is the HMS _Taurean, _a… submarine? Off the coast of Plymouth."

"Great, you have to hack it now."

"Ha-hack it?"

"Yep. Pretty easy, now that you have the only password you need to do it, don't you think so? You have to launch a missile."

"Where to?"

He looked at Rose "Do you trust me?"

"Always."

He looked away "10 Downing Street." He shushed any protests that could be heard from the other side of the line "Shush. Now listen, it's important. When it gets detected in the inland you will have to disable the counter measures. Do the Buffalo thingy, you know what. We trust you, Ricky." He hung up before listening his answer. He grabbed Rose's hand and made her follow him.

"Where are we going?"

"The entire place is going to blow up. The only thing we can do is at least take a refuge. What do you think, Mrs. Jones?"

"A very wise decision, it is."

And they went inside the cupboard, waiting for the hit. There was several moments of doubt as they wondered if Mickey would be able to make it, the calm before the storm. However, soon they heard a pitch sound, every second that passed louder than before, and that's when the storm arrived.

There was a big explosion, proceed with cracks and enormous tremors of the entire building. They were bounced in all the directions inside that tiny cupboard, the Doctor trying to hold Rose desperately, trying to avoid her getting any harm. There were several seconds when they didn't stop falling, and Rose nearly thought they would stay in that single moment for an eternity, always falling, never reaching the hard floor.

And then it stopped. The three of them were laying on their side, bruised and hurt, but slowly getting ecstatic as they had survived. Harriet was the first one that opened the door and made it outside, the remaining of 10 Downing Street around them. All reduced to dirt and dust.

"We survived." Rose squealed, grabbing the Doctor's hand and helping him go outside the wooden cabinet. They began laughing like mad, Harriet watching them in between amusement and horror.

"Yes, but how will England take this? We have been invaded by creatures we had no clue they existed and had literally destroyed the UK government. How will we be able to go forward?"

"Well, I can tell you the human race is a specialist of doing it, surviving. They keep on walking, no matter what happens. It was the time to change the government, give it a stroke of fresh air… Maybe you could make it possible, Harriet Jones, maybe future Prime Minister?"

She dismissed it with a hand "Don't joke with issues of that importance, Doctor. Now if you excuse me, someone has to explain what has really happened to the population. They deserve to know." She straightened her suit jacket and walked away, facing a crowd of people was waiting for her eager to obtain some answers.

"What was that?" Rose inquired as they walked away, hand in hand, to their beloved TARDIS.

"I have remembered why her name was so familiar. As you see, you have met the future Prime Minister, elected for three successive terms, a revolutionary mandatory known as Britain's Golden Age, when the UK makes a giant step to the future."

"Wow, and I have talked to _that _person? Travelling with you is truly amazing" she grinned

As they were coming close, they saw a little kid painting the TARDIS with spray-paint, scribbling the words BAD WOLF on it. _Strange painting, _Rose thought, but soon her confusion was faded away as the Doctor sprinted angrily to the boy.

"What the hell do you think you are doing to my box?" he shouted as he grabbed the kid's neck from behind, stopping him from escaping.

She chuckled and she went inside, grabbing a bucket of water and a scrubbing brush as the grumpy Doctor was scolding the poor kid about private properties and unacceptable behaviour. She made it outside and gave him the bucket, he soon making the kid clean the outside of the Police Box.

When he checked he had finished, he made a sharp nod "Good lad. Graffiti that again and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

The boy ran away, afraid and Rose couldn't stiffen more the giggles that escaped from her lips. He looked at her irritated and she laughed even more.

"C'mon grumpy pa', how about we set the TARDIS away and make a visit to poor Mickey? I'm sure he's waiting for us."

She went inside, not before she heard the Doctor muttering 'I'm not _grumpy._' and sat on the commander seat, the Doctor following her and switching some commands to their next destination.

.-.-.-.-.-.

As the TARDIS materialized again, Mickey made a jump and looked at the impossible spaceship standing in his living room, only to see Rose opening the door and rushing to hug him.

"Oh god you're alright!"

"Of course we were! Who do you think you' talkin' to, huh?" she smiled brightly and let him go.

The Doctor stepped outside and looked at him "Well Ricky, I have to say you have been of some utility today."

"Hey, don't be so rude! We wouldn't have made it without him."

"I would have found another way." He argued

"Sure." She agreed to avoid he would get even more pig-headed "Mickey, why don't you join us? I could convince this alien friend of mine" she pointed the Doctor, who scoffed "and you would be able to see anything you like! So, what do you say?"

He looked between the scolding look of the Doctor and her beaming one and sighed. He couldn't possibly be stuck between the two of them willingly. "I think I may refuse. I still have to take care of my grandma, she only has me and she's still ill."

"Oh… I'm sorry, I should have…"

"Don't worry. You couldn't possibly know. You better regain that memory of yours, maybe someone's waiting for you."

"Yeah…" she hugged him goodbye "Take care, good friend, and whenever you need us call me, okay?"

"I will. Now, Rose, Doctor, I hope to see you soon."

The Doctor nodded and Rose broke the hug, both of them stepping inside the TARDIS, which soon dematerialized before his bare eyes.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So," she commented while they were at the infirmary, healing her cuts and bruises. "We made it again. Ouch that's stings!"

"Don't move. Yeah we are miraculously and almost impossibly alive. I still don't know how we escaped nearly unharmed."

"That's because we're very lucky." She beamed at him

"If you say so…" he agreed, a playful little smile on his lips "Here you are. All your wounds attended."

"Ta." She mumbled. Then she looked at him at the eye serious, still seating on the sly "Doctor, if you… if there had been one possible way of saving the Earth and the Slitheen, and then punish them, maybe isolating them somewhere so they couldn't make more harm… would you have taken that path?"

He looked at her, surprise creeping on his face "Rose, if there had been anything like that I would have been the first one to take it. But I had tried to reason with them before, and in our position it was the only thing we could do."

"Yeah, I know. Don't misjudge me, I'm not accusing you of anything… it's only that… you seem to suffer when you have to take away the life of someone else, even if it's a big threat, and I don't want to see you like this."

"Rose…"

"-Just, please, think of the other way, always. If you don't do it for you, do it for me."

"… Okay, I can promise you that."

A smile slowly was traced on her face and she jumped off the sly. "C'mon, let me get changed and then we'll have some tea. I'm exhausted."

"Hmm, it doesn't sound bad. You remember where the kitchen is, don't you?"

"Of course I do."

"Last time you showed up in the library."

"But I already know where it is." she pouted

"Don't get lost." He joked as she made her exit huffing. Then he sonicked the scanner device, which somehow had stopped working when he was about to use it on Rose. Then, the screen blinked and showed the results as if nothing had happened. How strange. Had he touched a wrong button, distracted?

He checked everything was alright and switched it off, soon closing the door and going where his companion was waiting for him.

**So we're here again. I didn't change much of this chapter because, well, they are awesome in the canon. Yeah, Mickey acts as the worried Jackie and his grandma is still alive, but nothing else's different *crawls to the nearest corner* **

**Well, we're beginning to see some **_**ood **_**things happening here (I won't point them out if you didn't notice). Will they be important? Are they just random events? Only if you stay tuned you'll know (wow I sound like an add or something)**

**Anyway, see you in the next chapter!**


	7. The lone Dalek

_**I'm so sorry! **_**I know it has been a while (what, a month?) without posting, but I have a good excuse! Finals are approaching (let's say I have the first one tomorrow) so I've spent this entire month studying and making neat notes.**

**So I was thinking I had abandoned you a little bit, and even if I had to make a stop between bacteria and virus I would take my time to update. Moreover, I'll finish my finals on February, so I won't be able to update until the 12nd or so.**

**Well about the chapter, it's Dalek. I absolutely love this one, so I had to make it in two parts in order to write it as well as I could. I hope you like it!**

**Ch. 5. The lone Dalek**

"So, where do you want to go next?" The Doctor asked, his fingers fluttering on the console. Rose raised her gaze from the book she was reading and smiled, her tongue poking between her teeth.

"We've been so many times in my planet, why don't we go to somewhere else? Why don't we go to yours?"

His expression darkened and averted his gaze "Rose…" before he could think of something to answer that difficult question, a loud alarm went off. Suddenly in alert, he walked until he was behind her and looked at the mobile screen.

"What's happening?"

"It's kind of a help signal. It comes somewhere from Earth." He rushed towards the controls and set the coordinates down. He looked up at her, slightly worried. She smiled, jeopardy lover as she was, reassuring him. He pulled down a lever ant the distress sound remained eclipsed by the wheezing of the engines leading them to their destination.

He opened the door wary, Rose following him shortly.

"Where are we?"

"Earth, Utah, at year… 2012."

She stepped out. "Are we inside some sort of museum?"

"A very special one. It has alien artefacts inside their vitrines." He approached to one of them, showing a green arm with three long fingers. She gasped.

"It's a Slitheen arm!"

"And a lot of other things..." he moved to the next vitrine, where there was exposed a metallic lifeless head "Old enemy of mine, the Cybermen. One of all of the races that had threatened to conquer all the universe, now laying here. I guess I had to be inside one of them too…" he joked.

In an act of nostalgia, he touched lightly the glass casing of the Cyberman exhibit. Just as his skin made contact with the surface, a loud alarm set off, rapidly followed by the quick steps of a dozen of armed and very angry-looking guards.

"Why do we always end up like this?" She said, raising her arms in surrender

"Look at the positive side, Rose. Now we are going to meet directly to the main reason of this place's existence."

A bad looking guy with an ego from the point she was standing to the moon pushed her with his weapon and she followed the path marked by them frowning. "I'd do it if they didn't have guns pointing at us."

They stopped in front of a door, a golden sign pasted on it where it could be read the name Henry Van Statten. A woman with curly blond hair and a chubby on her ear appeared from behind and knocked on the door. She didn't wait for a response and opened it.

They went inside the room, the soldiers standing at the back of the room, leaving Rose and the Doctor with the blonde girl, who looked like the secretary of the man in front of them, too deep in a conversation with a young man to acknowledge their presence.

"And what does it do?" he grabbed a metallic object from the hands of the boy.

"We still don't know, we have to run some tests yet…"

"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor interrupted, making the secretary shush at him "Really, though. That's wrong."

"Was it dangerous?" the boy beside who she assumed was Henry Van Statten asked.

"No, just looked silly." He leaned forward and the guards behind him armed their weapons, but with a cut movement from the bald man they stopped. The Doctor grinned and took the artefact, holding it in its correct position. Then, he caressed dexterously the surface, making it sound. "You just have to be… delicate." He smiled tenderly as he performed a short and improvised song "And it's long away from his home…" _just like me _he completed mentally, suddenly feeling homesick.

Van Statten grabbed the artefact back almost immediately and began stroking it a bit forceful at first, but with the Doctors commands he ended creating a melody. Satisfied with himself, he stopped playing and discarded the object, throwing it to his left, what made the Doctor lose his smile. _What an arrogant git _Rose thought, needy as she was to try that alien instrument.

"Who exactly are you?" he asked directly

"I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"

"As if you don't know. You just happen to be inside one of the most valuable and extended alien collection, fifty-three floors down, with one of the most complicated security measures and you just kind of stumbled in by mistake."

"It was something like that." He shrugged his shoulders "It happens."

"And meanwhile, in the process, you get here with a girl for your own. Quite a brilliant collector, yourself. She's rather pretty, I must say."

"And she's gonna smack you in your face if you ever call her a _she_ again." She snapped

"Oh she's English!" he raised his eyebrows, not impressed by her outburst "Just like my puppy here. I think they will make a great couple."

The boy beside him, the one that had handed them the alien instrument spoke up "This is Mr. Henry Van Statten."

"Yeah, I could see that written on the door. Tell me something I don't know."

"Mr. Van Statten owns the internet."

She made a face "Don't be daft, nobody owns the internet."

"Let's let all the entire world think that." the alluded answered laughing

"So, for the record, you look for every single alien artefact that gets trapped here. Anything you don't understand you lock it up in a vitrine where you can observe it."

Van Statten reclined his body on the table "You were doing just that."

"I wasn't."

"That's what we found you doing. What were you doing next to the cage?"

"You tell me."

"Inside that cage there is the only one living specimen of my collection."

"Show me."

"You wanna see it?" he smiled wickedly. Rose sighed. Men and their need to compete for everything. Really. "Prepare the cage, tell them we are going down. Union Jack, take care of the girl, entertain her with teaspoons or whatever you do in that goddamn country. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet."

Rose shot him a longingly look before the door closed before her, leaving her alone with the English scientist.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Now you're gonna see Metaltron –I named it." He said proudly "After we ran out some scans we found out there was indeed a living creature inside connected to the metallic shell, but we haven't received any signal of rational interaction. We've tried it all, drill him, rise and lower its temperature, hit him with wrecking balls, put him in the dark and even _talk _to him, but we only have obtained silence or screaming back."

"I can't even comprehend why." The Doctor retorted sarcastically

"Anyway, we have arrived to the Cage. Is Metaltron prepared?" he asked, addressing to a man in front of the main computer

"Yes, sir. We have just finished with the drill."

"Perfect. Open the gate and let him in."

The door emitted a beeping sound and slowly opened. The Doctor abandoned Van Statten's side and went straight inside when there was enough opening for him to fit in. The only light that was illuminating the cold room was coming from the outside, and the stance became pitch black when the door closed securely behind him.

"Hello?" he tried "Are you here? I'm not with them, I've come here to help you. I can take you out, trust me. I'm the Doctor."

As soon as these words escaped from his lips, a robotic voce responded, the owner of it coming to life.

"DOC… TOR?"

His hearts skipped a beat "It… can't be…"

The lights of its metallic head began tilting, enlightening the creature bounded to the floor in four points by big metallic chains.

"DOC-TOR!"

The lights of the roof began working, making him see the Dalek in front of him. He rushed to the door and began banging it panicky.

"Let me out! He's dangerous please let me out!"

"YOU-RE THE DOC-TOR, ENEMY OF THE DA-LEKS."

"LET ME OUT!"

"YOU MUST BE EXTER-MINATED." His left extremity began moving, aiming at him. Realizing they wouldn't open the door, he closed his eyes, ready for the inevitable. Really, it had been too short in that new body.

When the shot didn't come, he opened his eyes again in confusion, looking at the impossible creature before him. The Dalek in question was moving frenetically his left extremity, nothing coming from it. He weakly tugged the chains around him hopeless.

His face beamed with sarcasm "Oh, your little weapon stalk is broken? Guess you can't kill me now. What are you gonna do now, huh?"

"I DON'T UN-DERS-TAND. I DE-MAND ORDERS."

"From who?"

"I AM A-WAI-TING FOR OR-DERS."

"You won't receive them from anyone. All the Daleks are dead. I made sure of that. All the ten million ships of your fleet burning to ashes. HA!"

He lowered his glowing blue eye "AM I A-LONE IN THE U-NI-VERSE?"

"Yep. And now you can't damage more the universe with your presence."

"AND WHAT HA-PPE-NED TO THE TIME LORDS?"

He averted his darkening eyes and clenched his fists. Suddenly the faces of his suffering fellows came to his mind, the ones he had abandon in order to stop the dreadful war that was killing not only that two races, but the entire existence in that universe.

He cleared his throat, still not looking at him "They are gone too, as a result of the end of the Time war. All dead."

"WE ARE THE LAST OF OUR KIND, THEN. WE ARE A-LIKE, DOC-TOR."

Enraged he leaned forward, charging to the Dalek "Don't you ever compare me to you. We're not…!" then he stopped talking and grinned madly "Well, maybe we are, after all. Because I know what to do right now." He made some steps back, keeping eye-contact. Then he placed his hand on a lever and smiled darkly "Exterminate."

He pulled it down, immediately sending big pulses of electricity through the chains, affecting his inner system as his dalekanium shields were damaged. He began screaming, asking for mercy, but did they stop when his brothers cried before death? Before they could even regenerate?

The door flew open and Van Statten's guards came inside, stopping the torture and bringing him out of there forcefully, Van Statten then following them and standing in front of the Dalek.

"Don't you understand? He's dangerous! We must destroy him!"

His back and the blue glowing dot before him was the last thing he saw before being thrown out of the Cage.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Instants later, they were going inside an elevator, the Doctor surrounded by guards.

"That creature you have in the Vault is one of the most dangerous ones in the universe. It is very important I know how he ended here."

The blonde woman, who he assumed was Van Statten's secretary, answered "It fell to the Earth like a comet fifty years ago, on the Ascension Islands, and its crater was burning three days before they could extinguish the fire. They found it there as you see it now, and it passed through several private collections before my boss bought it in an auction."

His gaze unfocused as he began thinking about the situation "… must have been fallen through time, somehow. Maybe in the time vortex…?"

"You know, Doctor? We have heard some interesting things down there. You two have mentioned a Time War…"

"Yes, the Last Great Time War, which confronted them, the Daleks, with us, the Time Lords, but this ended a long time ago and it's sealed from the universe. It's strange that one soldier ended here."

"So now the Dalek It's not the only living alien in the Earth…" he made a sign with his head and the guards around him grabbed him tightly from his arms. Realizing it was a trap, he struggled to break free, but even if he would have been able, he still was inside that lift, trapped.

They forcefully guided him to another isolated room and took him off his leather jacket and jumper, chaining him up to have his arms lifted tight.

Van Statten then pushes a button, and a red light scanned his chest. That glowing light was made of infrared waves of the light spectrum, its penetration capacity quadrupled so it made possible to elaborate a moving image in high definition of the object of analysis. It also burned like hell.

The Doctor made an attempt to suffocate his agonizing screams, without exit whilst the man responsible for his pain stared amazed to a screen.

"Oh, look at what we have here…" he said, stopping the laser "Binary vascular system! Imagine how much money I could obtain patenting it. It would be revolutionary!" he beamed

"So that was it. The tiny little piece that was missing." He panted and made a pause, regaining some strength "You don't only collect alien artefacts, when you discover how they work you sell them to the one that pays the most. You are just a space mercenary."

"I should admit that, but Doctor, do you fail to see how the human nature can advance from this point? We find cures for sickness, more advanced artefacts that can make our life better, and all that only by a little payment compared to the future profitability. It is evolution!"

"It is not! The human race is not supposed to have this technology at this point of time. Who knows how things can end if just one of them falls in bad hands…"

"Maybe, but is only the human race the one allowed to discover it." And with that sentence he turned on the laser again and left an agonizing Doctor alone.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So this is the operation room." Adam gestured as he showed Rose around the base "Here is where it's controlled the different experiments that are held in all the building facilities and taken records of it."

She approached to a monitor and looked at him, her eyes gleaming "So, hypothetically, we could see everything that happens in any room if we want, isn't it?"

"Yeah." He breathed heavily

"Wow, where's the privacy here?" she laughed, Adam following her some instants later, nervously "So what did a boy like you to end up in that kind of controlling place?"

He rubbed his hair "Well, Van Statten began a secret operation to recruit new minds around the world, in order to study the alien objects that ended falling to our atmosphere, and they chose me. They were looking to the cleverest ones."

"Wow, I'm in front of a genius." She mocked

"Well I really am. When I was eleven I hacked the CIA net and made them crazy. I almost started WW3! You should have seen them running from one place to another." they both laughed "But to think that everything the Government has tried to deny for so long was indeed true… all the universe with every kind of living beings possible… And we are able to catch a glimpse of them."

"Have you ever contemplated the possibility of seeing the stars? I dunno, grab some of the junk that ends here, build a spaceship and fly away."

He shrugged his shoulders "I am more of the kind that observes, not lives. I am not jeopardy-friendly enough to do that, and that's why I have this job. I haven't even seen the living specimen we have."

"That thingy? How did you call him… Metal pot?"

"Metaltron." He corrected her

She looked down and smiled wickedly, hiding it quickly with an apologetic look "I'm starting to get worried by my companion, the Doctor." She smiled inside her mind as their positions were turned "He has been a lot of time out and I'd like to check on him…"

"My boss won't allow us to go down there to the Cage even if we ask him to. It would alter the experiment and I would probably be fired for the insolence." He shivered, remembering the last secretary that had to go.

She glanced downwards "If only there was a way to see what's happening without interfering…"

His face lit up when he came up with an idea. He was finding Rose quite appealing, and she was cleverer than the average woman in town, not even slightly taken away by his out of the ordinary intelligence, so it was pretty normal he wanted to show off in front of her, wasn't it? Moreover, his mother always told him to be more initiative and wasn't that a good time to start being a little spontaneous?

"Actually, we could go inside the operation system and watch what's happening right now." She looked at him and smiled brightly, what made him put his knowledge in the task. Hacking in wasn't really difficult, and they soon found themselves looking at a man wearing an orange suit inside the dark room.

Rose lost her smile when she heard a pitched sound, like a drill against metal, and a robotic scream. "What are they doing?! Where is the Doctor?" the boy just shrugged, taken aback by the crudeness of the images in front of him "Take me there, we have to stop him."

He snapped his eyes out of the screen to look at her in exchange "Are you nuts?! They gonna fire me!"

"Take me. The Doctor isn't there, he wouldn't have allowed this," she pointed at the screen "so something bad is going on. We have to help him, he's crying for help!" she cried

He turned off the computer and stood up, guiding her three floors down.


	8. Not quite what I used to be

***shamelessly looks at her follower* IM BAAAAACK! phew, those exams were crazy! At least I got good grades but wow, I wasn't used to study more than a month for 5 exams... even if I should have by now (I am at my second year, but let's say that last year I was lazier)**

**Anyway, about this chapter: I won't lie, I had so much fun writing it, as it's one of my favourites of the whole series. I added some tiny details that makes Rose more empathic with the Dalek and... wait why am I telling you this? Read it and find it out!**

**.-.-.-.-.-. **

**Ch. 6. Not quite what I used to be**

_"There was a time I had to choose between being by your side and saving your world. Then I realized I didn't have to."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

She was standing inside a dark room, a creature which resemblance was nearer to a pepper pot than a living being in front of her. Well, it wasn't the strangest alien she had witnessed.

As she didn't hear anything coming from him, she walked near him cautiously, the light of the ceiling illuminating her.

"Hello, I'm Rose. Are you in pain? My friend, the Doctor and I will help you."

The metal thingy raised his blue eye and observed her "ROSE."

"Yes, my name is Rose." She smiled reassuringly stood next to him "What's your name?"

"YES." He made a stop when she looked at him. Maybe he didn't understand her. But then, he spoke again "I AM IN PAIN. THEY TOR-TURED ME, YET THEY FEAR ME. DO YOU FEAR ME?"

"No."

"I AM DYING."

"No, we can help you!"

"DON'T WOR-RY HU-MAN. I WEL-COME DEATH. I AM GLAD I MET SOME-ONE LIKE YOU BE-FORE I DIE."

"Don't say that! We will free you and you will see your family again."

"NO. THEY ARE ALL DEAD. I'M A-LONE IN THE U-NI-VERSE."

She looked at the creature in front of her with a clenched heart. She knew what was feeling alone in all the extended space. Of course, she had the Doctor, but sometimes, when she was alone in the darkness of her room, she couldn't stop feeling that way. Would be someone in Earth waiting for her? And if he was indeed, how would he been feeling in her absence?

She missed something she didn't know if she had. And yet in front of her was a living being that was more alone than her, forgotten in a distant galaxy, forever sank there.

In an act of compassion, she raised her hand to caress his metallic head, but just as she placed her hand on the surface it got burned and she took it away in pain. The mark of her hand was still there, glowing in fire. She made two steps back.

"CREA-TURE DNA SUI-TA-BLE. BE-GIN-NING THE EX-TRA-PO-LA-TION. EX-TE-RIOR SHIELDS RE-GE-NE-RA-TING."

The door flew open and the orange-suited guy went inside as the chains containing the Dalek broke into pieces. "What have you done!" as he closed his mouth, the Dalek approached him and directed his right arm, shaped like a plunger, towards his face and applied suction, which crushed his skull and fell dead to the ground. The alarms went off as Rose and Alan, with the guards and scientists in the room attached to the Cage, ran away.

.-.-.-.-.-.

When the alarms went off, Van Statten snapped his head out of the screen and looked up, startled. Her secretary opened the door and went inside with a black leather folder on her hands.

"What is happening?!" he demanded

"The Metaltron has broken free."

"It's a Dalek." The Doctor corrected her

"Where is it now?" he asked, ignoring the alien's remark

"Still at the Cage."

"And the operatives?" he raised his voice, making her wince

"All of them have escaped, closing the security door."

"Great. It is trapped, then."

"You don't understand it." The Doctor interrupted. He was panting slightly, mentally thanking that the scanner had stopped working after the alarms went off "He is nothing alike every danger the human nature has encountered.

He is one of the most intelligent races of the universe, one able to run through a billion combinations of numbers within seconds. What really separates you from the monster is no more than a thin paper for him."

The light flickered and they stood up in darkness, after the generators began working. Van Statten began pacing nervously "What has that been?"

The woman raised her hand to her ear and listened to what was whispered to her ear by the chubby. Dread decorated her face before speaking up "He broke free after draining the power of the Vault, sir."

"Not only that, but surely of diverse estates." The Doctors chuckled darkly "And guess what more he did? He learned all the information of the internet, discovering every little detail of his captor." He would have shrugged his shoulders if he hadn't been tied up "I really am the only one here that knows how to defend myself from a Dalek. If you wish to live, Van Statten, release me."

He did as he asked and moved to his office, five floors up from where the Dalek was. As they arrived, he switched on his computer.

"Sir, we have surrounded it!" the radio turned on as one of the guards communicated with him.

"Tell them not to damage the Metaltron." He ordered his secretary

"They are in danger, sir." She exclaimed taken aback

"They are dispensable, the alien not. Listen" he took the communicator "I do not want to see any scratches on the alien! Do you hear me?" after some moments of silence, he grabbed again the communicator, pressing the receiving button. "Hello?"

"He has killed them. Normal weapons don't affect him. Do you have alien ones?"

"They are down there." Diana answered

"How not." He muttered under his breath "Is there any possibility of getting some up here?"

"Maybe in the ones not analysed yet."

"Get them. I'll check if they work."

She nodded and left. Van Statten paced nervously around the room, the surveillance program initiating so they could control where the Dalek was "Weren't you claiming you were an alien expert? Then do something! Negotiate with him!"

"Won't do. Who would like to negotiate with his torturing captor?" he stared at him with darkening eyes, the storm coming to him "The Dalek race doesn't negotiate, they kill just because they are different to their opponent. It is the ultimate measure in racial cleansing, and you" he pointed at him "have let it loose."

The computer chirms and the rush to look at it. The Doctor caught a glimpse of a pink and yellow human rushing out of the screen and he let out a breath of relieve. God, she was alive. He didn't know what would have done if she was killed by the monster in front of him.

He saw a blue eye observing her and then he stopped, looking then at the camera. He frowned. Why didn't he shut it down? The guards began shooting at him, but he merely stood there. He raised his left extension shoot at the sprinklers, activating them, only to leave soaking wet all of them. He elevated himself with his propulsion devices under him and shot at the floor, electrifying the water and killing the guards there.

"Maybe we should start thinking about other strategy. Maybe leaving this place, the Dalek concealed here." Van Statten stated, clearly terrified

"There's no way to shut him down. There isn't power enough at the helipad and we don't have the codes to close the Vault!" Diana, starting to show her annoyance towards her demanding boss, answered

"Well, isn't it great there's a genius here that can bypass the security codes?"

"You wanna help?" The Doctor asked, doubtful

"I don't want to _die, _simple as that. Nobody knows this software better than me."

Then, the screen flashed on, showing the metal alien how he turned around and looked directly at the camera.

"I SHALL ON-LY SPEAK TO THE DOC-TOR."

"Here I am." He answered on the microphone connected to the speakers of the Vault "Now what do you want from me?"

"I EX-TRA-PO-LA-TED THE DNA OF THE TIME TRA-VE-LLER ROSE TY-LER AND RE-GE-NE-RA-TED. THEN I LOOKED IN E-VERY SITE OF THE IN-TER-NET, TE-LES-COPES, SA-TE-LLITES, SE-CRET FILES."

"And what did you find?"

"NO-THING. YOU WERE RIGHT, DOC-TOR, THERE IS NO SIGNS OF THE DA-LEKS."

"I know I am. I made sure of it. Now what you're going to do without someone to give you orders?" he asked bemused

"AS A DA-LEK, WITH NO OR-DERS I SHALL CA-RRY THE PRI-MA-RY DA-LEK FUNC-TION, TO DES-TROY!"

"You want an order? Just kill yourself."

He moved his extremities in anger "THE DA-LEKS MUST SUR-VIVE."

"You have _failed! _Why don't you finish the job and liberate the universe of your filth? Why don't you just _die?!_" the Doctor cried, anger numbing his developed senses.

The Dalek suddenly stopped moving and looked at the camera once again. The lights in his head tilted as he spoke. "YOU WOULD MAKE A GOOD DA-LEK" and the image vanished, leaving them in a stunned silence.

"Hey," the voice of Van Statten interrupted the thoughts of the other two "I've managed to obtain some of the codes and I can lead some power to the bulkheads and close them, but not for a very long time."

"You can't do that, Rose's down there!" he exclaimed

"We have to do it before the power falls off, Doctor, or we would let that thing loose."

He closed his eyes, a deep frown on his front. Here he was again, deciding whether he wanted to save the humanity or just the pink and yellow human. With the other ones –there had been so many companions before- he wouldn't have needed a beat of one of his hearts to decide, but what was what made it that difficult now? The way she had ended with his solitude, enlightened his sorrow after the Time War?  
>There was one thing he knew for sure, if he could do something about it, he didn't want to lose her yet.<p>

"Let me call her, warn her first. Then we close the Vault."

Diane gave him a mobile phone and he dialled almost without looking Rose's number. After two sounds, it came an exhausted voice from the other side "…Doctor?" she breathed heavily

"Where are you?" he demanded

"… Level… 49 right now."

"Not enough. You have to run through the door 45 ASAP."

"… Wad'ya thin'… I'm doin'?" she answered between exhales "Can't you stop them closin' a lil' bit?"

"I'm doing it right now. I can't wait more, so for god's sake, run."

"Doctor, we need to do it now. We're running out of energy!" Van Statten obligated, making him shut his eyes again

"… Do it. And Rose, please, hurry up."

He observed how he inserted the codes to close the doors, letting his arm fall a little while he was doing it. He listened in dread as the beeping sounds confirmed the engines were working as they had been commanded, and when Van Statten told him they were sealed, he rapidly raised his left hand with the phone to his ear.

"Rose, are you alright? Did you make it?"

Soft pants could be heard from the other side. As she took her time to answer, he grew more anxious every second that passed "… I'm sorry." She cried "I guess I wasn't fast enough."

The Doctor's vision turned black, and he barely registered what she told him next. It wasn't his fault, she said? Of course it was. He was the bloody one who asked to. And now she was trapped with a Dalek. Isolated. With no chances of escaping.

He heard the Dalek's claim of extermination and a shot, and the phone slipped off his fingers. He turned around and looked at the man whose egoism had caused his companion decease and he exploded.

"I said I'd protect her. I promised her. She was down there because of me, but nothing of all this would have happened if you would have let me kill the creature in its cell. But you _stopped me."_

"It was the main prize of my collection! A living alien!"

"Your collection? Was it worth all the soldier's deaths, worth Rose? Just for your eagerness to stick the stars to the floor inside glass vitrines where you could contemplate them? I hope you can sleep at night after all that."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose opened her eyes, hesitant, as the pain didn't come. She had embraced her death, accepted it, but was surprised to see the Dalek standing before her, stoic and immobile. Not killing her.

"What are you doing? Why don't you kill me? Finish this already!"

He looked at her eyes, lowering his left hand "I AB-SOR-BED YOUR DNA AND RE-GE-NE-RA-TED. IT MADE ME STRONG-ER BUT WEAKER TOO. I CAN FEEL YOUR FEAR." He approached so he was just some steps away from her "WHY CAN I FEEL? WHAT ARE YOU, ROSE TY-LER, AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?"

"I don't know." She muttered, not really answering him

"E-VEN IF I DON'T KILL YOU, I CAN USE YOU TO BREAK FREE." He connected his right hand to the circuit and activated the cameras footage, letting his image go through Van Statten's screen.

"I HAVE THIS ROSE AS A HOSTAGE." He said, looking at the camera "O-PEN THAT BULK-HEADS AND LET ME FREE, OTHER-WISE I WILL KILL HER THIS TIME." He looked at her and returned his mechanical blue eye to the camera "TELL ME, DOC-TOR. WHAT USE ARE E-MO-TIONS IF YOU WON'T SAVE THE WO-MAN YOU LOVE?"

Some moments later, the bulkhead was raised again, letting the Dalek and Rose go through it.

"YOU WILL FO-LLOW ME."

"Why? Why haven't you killed me yet? Now you've broken free I am useless, so why keep bothering?"

He stopped and moved his head to observe her in silence. Half a minute later he kept going, leaving all these questions unanswered.

They reached Van Statten's office, following the Dalek short. She had contradictory feelings, as she wanted desperately to see the Doctor, but also wished he wasn't there so he wouldn't have to encounter the metallic alien.

The doors opened with a loud thud and they walked in. Inside, Van Statten stood up with a jump and looked at them with awe. The Doctor apparently wasn't there, and Rose breathed in relief.

"Metaltron! You're here!"

"I AM A DA-LEK, NOT THE NAME YOU ASSIG-NED ME." He stood just two feet away from him and approached, while he tried to escape backwards "YOU SEEM NOT TO KNOW A THING A-BOUT ME YET I KNOW YOU, HEN-RY VAN STA-TTEN. YOU TOR-TURED ME, YET I SHALL DO THE SAME TO YOU. EXTERMINATE!" he raised his gun towards him.

"NO!" Rose stood up between the two of them, trying to stop him. The Dalek hesitated and didn't shoot again "You didn't kill me, so you don't have to kill him either. You have changed, and there is no one out there to give you orders now, so what do you want?"

"…WANT?" he asked confused

"Yes, want. With not more strings that tie you down, what do you desire the most?"

After some moments of thinking, he replied "… I WANT FREE-DOM."

"Van Statten, let us go outside. I'll make sure no one is harmed."

He nodded, speechless, and they went out the room, riding up to the surface. The Dalek didn't say anything, neither did Rose, so they climbed the levels in an utter silence. When they reached Level 1, he raised his left extremity and shot, opening a hole on the roof, letting the soft sunlight stream through.

"WHAT ARE YOU, ROSE?"

"A human." She answered, confused

"YET I FEEL YOU ARE MUCH MORE THAN THAT. NO APE HAS SHOWN THAT MER-CY."

Her heart clenched in emotion, despite the situation she was in. Could it be that the daleks were more that could be seen in the eye? "It's the right thing to do. I couldn't leave you down there."

"YOU SHOULD HAVE. I AM A KILL-ER."

"Not now, you have changed."

He didn't answer, but he raised his eye to the sun stream "WHAT DOES THE SUN FEEL LIKE?"

She thought of the soft rays caressing her pale skin, warming it lightly and making it shine "Warm and welcoming, like a hug."

He began to make some beeping noises, then the abdominal zone began opening slowly, letting her see the real Dalek inside of the armour. It had tentacles and one glassy eye, that then it was looking at the sun in admiration. He raised one tentacle towards it, enjoying the warmth.

"It's beau-ti-ful." Without the metallic echo of his armour, his voice sounded more natural in her like.

"Yeah, right?" he looked up at the sun and closed her eyes, marvelling the warm embrace

Suddenly, the Doctor appeared, running with a heavy-looking gun towards them. She looked at him in horror as he began charging it.

"Rose! Get out of the way!"

She intercepted his trajectory with her own body "Are you nuts? The hell I'm getting out. Look at him! He's defenceless, just enjoying the sun. Doctor, look at him. He didn't kill me when he had a chance, neither killed Van Statten, his captor. He is changing." She dropped her arms, meeting his confused eyes "But the question is, what is he making you change into?"

He stopped and saw the creature before him. The Dalek but not quite it. He dropped the gun, disgusted with himself and walked towards them, standing beside Rose. He didn't catch her hand, disgusted of what he had been turned to; the Oncoming Storm, the nightmare of a lot of civilisations.

Despite his internal conflict, she grabbed his hand and squished it lightly, glad to see him once again. He squished back, losing some darkness in his sorrow look.

"It seems that the DNA that absorbed from you made it regenerate, but when he assimilated it, it began to mutate further, changing him slowly, giving him emotions his creator tried so hard to eliminate." The Doctor explained

"My mind is filled with so ma-ny ideas… ma-ny desires I didn't con-ceive I could have… I am no longer pure; I am no longer a Da-lek. Rose, as my cre-a-tor I ask you one thing. Or-der me to die."

"Wha..! No! I can't do that! I can't…"

"DO IT!" he screamed, agonizing

She let go of the Doctor's hand and walked towards him until she was in front of him. Tears were welling up on her eyes, threatening to fall. She raised her hand and looked at him asking with her eyes, and he raised his tentacle and made contact with her. It was a bit sticky and cold, but she didn't mind.

"What's your name?"

"I don't have one. I'm just a Da-lek."

"You could have been much more, Dalek. If it's really your wish…" her voice strangled, some tears escaped from the corner of her eyes "…die."

"Thank… you, Rose Ty-ler."

He took away his tentacle and his capsule began closing. She made some steps back, again by the Doctor's side.

He raised into the air, the spheres on his capsule disengaging and encircling him, making a force field that protected the outside of what was about to happen.

"BE-GIN-NING THE AU-TO-DES-TRUC-TION."

The globes began glowing and rotating, every second that passed at much more speed. She looked away, resting her forehead at his shoulder, not wanting to see the end. She listened a low bang, like the shot of a kid's gun, and when she raised her eyes, there was no sign of the alien that stood in front of them.

"Let's go home." She simply asked him, and they walked in silence back to the TARDIS. As they stood in front of the door of the blue police call box, he sighed "And like this, the time war is finished, and as the last survivor… I win."

"This is what happened to your people? The same as the Daleks?"

"Yeah." He opened the door "Mind a cuppa?"

"Yes, please."

.-.-.-.-.-.

After all the story told and two cups of tea later, they sat on the couch of the library, looking how the flames of the fireplace danced. Her tea was left forgotten on the table, already cold.

"So this one was the last one of the Daleks."

"I honestly don't know. I thought that before all of this happened but now…"

"And, if one of them survived, isn't it possible that some of the Time Lords survived too? Escaping somehow with another TARDIS. Traveling the stars just like you."

"I would feel it here if that had been the case." He said, pointing at his forehead "And it feels like there is no one, empty."

"Well, you still have me." She smiled and squished his hand. Then she snapped her head up as she remembered something "Adam! Doctor, we have to take him to a trip."

"What? That good for nothing boy? No way."

"Hey, he helped me a lot, and he told me he wanted to see the stars…"

"He left you down there." He retorted annoyed

"He didn't have a chance! C'mon, just a trip?" she pouted as she didn't find any more ways to convince him.

He sighed, exasperated "Fine, but on your own head."

"Thanks!" she jumped and hugged him tightly, then she ran to the door. He stood up too, placing his empty mug on the table. Even if he didn't like the _pretty_ boy –he had abandoned Rose when she needed it the most- he wanted to be present when he stepped into the TARDIS. He never got tired of the 'it's bigger on the inside' part. Not that he was doing this to see her beaming face.

When Rose opened the door and went out, she saw Adam, turning on the corner. He saw her and ran towards her.

"Rose, Doctor! You have to leave now. Goddard is now in charge and is going to seal the base with cement. They are waiting for us in the Bad Wolf one."

"Bad Wolf one?" she frowned. Where had she heard that name before?

"The only helicopter empowered to leave the Vault."

"Hmmm… I prefer our TARDIS. Much more comfortable, even if the trips are a bit bumpy. Whad'ya say, Doctor?"

"I agree with you, as always. Come on then, I don't want to get buried in cement." And he went inside again, to the control room, before adjusting the coordinates to fly into the time vortex. Rose soon followed behind him, leaving the door opened.

"H-hey, what are you doing? We have to leave…" he went inside and the blue wooden door closed behind him, followed after it's characteristic dematerialising sound as the TARDIS disappeared from view.


	9. The fourth power

**I was checking up what I had already posted and I realized I had repeated the initial hint at the beginning of this chapter. Sorry for the false notification of update, but I can tell you this Saturday I'm updating for sure!**

**Ch. 7. The fourth power**

_"You will_ _have_ _me, even_ _if_ _I'm_ _not_ _longer_ _by_ _your_ _side."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So Adam, when do you want to go? Privilege of the new traveller." Rose asked, beaming. Oh, this reminded her of her first trip. She had experienced so many things in a short period of time it actually seemed much longer than it really was.

Adam, quite not used to the TARDIS yet, could only gape at her "I… huh… don't know…?"

"Oh, I know where to take that brainy-boy. You gonna find it incredible!" the Doctor chipped

He didn't feel _that _excited for the presence of the pretty boy on board, but he faked it for Rose. She had asked him to behave, so he was doing just that. Well, kind of.

So he pulled down the lever before him and his ship began moving, initiating a bumpy ride, which made Rose laugh out loud. He couldn't help but smile too, who would have thought that making her happy would make him feel this way? He didn't give it much thought while roaming on the console, pressing the correct buttons and pulling the correct levels. He didn't want to be mocked for his driving skills again, after all.

They landed with a thud and Rose stood up, walked to his side and looked behind them, only to see Adam dazed and with a tone of green on his face.

"No puking in the console room, kid. The restroom is first hall left, second right and turning by the library, the first door by the left."

He saw amused how the boy stood up and walked off, leaving them alone waiting for him. He heard Rose chuckling beside him "The first trip is always the worst one."

"You took it quite well." He noted. She smiled in return

"I'm a tough girl. So, where and when are we?"

"Aren't you gonna wait your fellow human?"

"C'mon, I'm too curious, and you won't let me go outside by myself." She pouted

"First rule of a time traveller: don't wander off. And to satisfy your curiosity until our dear guest comes back, I'll give you the when: this is the year 200.000, we are in the middle of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire."

He took a deep breath "At this time, the human race has begun an expansion through the stars, discovering different planets and species, and interacting with them." Adam walked in again, a little pale but looking better nonetheless "Oh, look who's here for the history lesson."

"Adam, are you feeling better?"

"Y-yeah, more or less."

"Don't worry, you get used to the bumpiness at the third trip more or less. His driving skills are not the best ones."

He stared at her indignantly "Oi! What did I do?"

"Did you actually pass the driving test?"

She did have a point "Well, weren't you craving to see the outside?" he opened the door, leading them to an observatory deck of a spaceship

"So, what was I saying? Ah yes, 200.000. The Earth at this moment is overpopulated, with 96 billion people living in megacities, so they begin to populate the stars. Moreover, they construct space stations that orbit around the Earth. We are aboard one of them, Satellite 5, specialized in… news broadcast I think."

Adam was besotted from the view before him. He was staring at what was outside the three-caped window, the Earth, with a metallic cover of satellites and space junk orbiting around it, and the sun, shining behind it.

"Breath-taking, isn't it?" Rose asked him kindly. He simply nodded "Yeah, it still amazes me." She turned her head left where the Doctor was staring at her in silence. She smiled and grabbed his hand.

"We should move. There's so much to see of this station yet."

They walked inside a deserted space, with some spare metallic cabinets laying around. "Oh, Rose, you are going to love this time period. The human culture is at its peak, with fine manners and delicious cuisine. And they still have chips! Isn't it fantastic?" as he said that, a loud siren went off and the place they were in suddenly filled with people, shouting and noise.

The Doctor looked around him dumbfounded, while Rose looked amused at the food stops. "Fine cuisine? Looks like normal junk food to me."

"Something's off… I have to see what it is. You two can get something to eat waiting."

"Hey! And what about the first rule of time travellers?"

"Rule number 1: Do as the Doctor says!" he said, running off

"We don't have any money!"

He stopped and turned around "Fine, I'll go pick some."

So the two humans waited on the queue for the Doctor to return. The shop attender was barking some insults to somebody, more likely to a client. _Fine manners my ass_, she thought.

"So… is he like this?"

"Who? The Doctor? Usually."

"Does he have a bank account or something? Where is he going to take the money?"

"Oh, he has some tricks under his sleeve."

She didn't feel like telling him about the screwdriver. Well, that and some other things about them. She wasn't still quite sure about him being on board and she wanted to make sure he didn't mess up.

The Doctor came back when they were about to give their command. They paid with one metallic stick he had brought with him. They sat on one of the spare tables around there and began eating.

"So I did some of checking while getting the money, and something is wrong here. They are 90 years behind where they should be."

"C'mon, can't you admit you messed up with the landing?" she joked

"No, I didn't –I checked-. So here we are, on a place that has progressed but not enough. So what are we going to do?"

"An extensive research, of course. Find what's not right and, if we can, solve it." She beamed

"Yep. That's it exactly. Now, if someone gets lost, here you are. Use it with head." He gave the two humans one money stick each.

"How does it work?" Adam asked wary

"It's your job to find out! Well off we go. It's time to investigate."

Rose saw two girls standing before a door talking "Maybe we could start asking them."

He eyed them too "Oh Rose, you're fantastic."

She followed him as he started doing what she had just suggested. A voice calling her stopped her at the middle of it "…Rose."

She looked behind her, only to see Adam standing there, not following. "What's up?"

"It's only… this is too much to swallow right away. It's like reality has come up to smack me in the face for being too oblivious."

She laughed "Oh, I know how you feel. Would a calling to your family help?" she showed him her phone "I have a very good contract, they allow me interstellar temporal calls for free, can you imagine it?"

"You really lending it? Thanks." He squished her hand and disappeared from where they had come. She turned around and saw the Doctor waiting for her. Did he not want her to miss anything? How cute.

She could overhear her conversation from afar, they were talking about the TV broadcast, what she assumed it was their job.

"… wolfTV footage next round." The taller girl stopped talking as she saw the pair beside them "Do you need anything?"

"Oh hello. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose. Could you help me? Because I am like the dumbest person here in Satellite 5 and we're… kinda lost."

"Hm, this is floor 217. How did you end up here without knowing?"

"No idea." He grinned

"Wow, that had must been a hell of a party. Wait," the blonde one started, suddenly looking bewildered "is that one of that management bust? We were told it could happen back at the academy." She gave a look at the woman beside her

"Yep, you caught me." He showed them the psychic paper "Now that we're clear…"

"Cathica." The black-haired answered "I'm the processor journalist at group 217. She is Suki, an assistant journalist and a scholar."

"Right. Then, as a part of the test, I would like you to explain me what is the exact function of Satellite 5."

"It's the new TV station, opened to function 90 years ago. We have the task of controlling the contents broadcasted at the 600 channels across the Empire. We're organized in floors depending on our efficiency. Everyone's dreams is to be promoted to floor 500."

"And why would that be?" he asked curious

"As if you don't know. There are a lot of rumours around it. Is it true it has gold walls?"

"Hm… if we told you it wouldn't be a rumour, would it? Just let it stay like this." Rose said winking an eye "Maybe you could show us your work to… supervise it."

"Of course. And I hope you talk about us up there." Suki winked at him.

Adam trotted where they were standing, and followed them. Cathica opened the room beside her, giving them access to a white chamber already filled with 7 people "Guys, let us begin. Today we have very special guests with us, so let's do our best! You already know what to do."

And with that, everyone sat on their positions, all arranged in a circle around Cathica and looking at her. She raised her head and all of the other operators closed their eyes just before she snapped her fingers. Suddenly, a port opened on her front and Rose noted horrified she could see her brain from where she was standing.

The operators, unaware of the situation, or maybe too aware, put their two hands on a panel they had in front of them in ease, and a white ray streamed from above to Cathica's forehead.

"What is happening?" Rose whispered to the Doctor.

"You see that ray? It's pure information, all the news gathered and she controls it. She has become a processor of a computer system, well, more complex than it. She absorbs the information and transfers it packaged to the back-up system, the reporters, who then transmit it to different channels."

"They have that gate too?"

"No, only a chip, but it's enough to receive the information."

"And will they remember it?" Adam asked

"Of course not. The information capacity of the human brain is too short for that amount of information, it would melt. So as a defence mechanism they forget it all when the link with the central computer ceases."

"Amazing…" he muttered

"No, it's not. That's so wrong in so many levels. They should have been more advanced than this, it's too rudimentary and dangerous. Something fails in the connection and your brain gets the consistency of soup."

Suddenly, they heard a shuffled cry and saw Suki withdrawing her hands in pain. The flow of information stopped, and they all turned their eyes to her "I'm sorry." She apologized "I might have lost concentration for a bit. Can we keep going?"

They resumed their positions, but when they were about to start again, the speakers emitted a loud sound, accompanied by an announcement: 'Suki has been promoted to Floor 500, congratulations.' When it ended, all of the other reporters began hugging her and applaud her, wishing her luck up there. She was all smiles and tears, and said nothing about the rude comment Cathica made.

"Oh my god, this is so amazing! Thank you so much, Doctor, Rose. I won't say anything about your collaboration." She winked

"You're welcomed. And congrats." Rose faked a smile and waved at her when she parted to the elevator which would transport her to her new life. Adam has fled off somewhere, she didn't care much –he had kind of disappointed her with his reaction towards the ray whatsit, but she didn't say anything- and she was left alone with the Doctor.

"You see, this is kind of strange." She muttered

"What is?"

"C'mon, she makes a huge mistake and gets promoted instants later? They are connected to the stream, aren't they? Even if they had planned to promote her they would have detected the mistake before doing it, then they would postpone it, wouldn't they?"

He pondered it and slowly grinned, making her feel a tiny bit proud of herself "Oh Rose, always asking the best questions. We just have to do a bit more of an undercover, don't we?"

"After you." She pointed Cathica, who was still humming in annoyance and followed after him

"So," he addressed an irritated Cathica when they came closer "you know where the nearest control panel is? There has been kind of a failure in the system."

"It's just right there, on the left."

"Oh thank you. Such a big send-off for just a promotion, wasn't it?"

"As if you don't know."

"Let's just assume I'm the dumbest person in this universe. So…?"

She crossed her arms and huffed "She won't come back. It will be the last time we see her, unless we get promoted too."

"And one little question. Why is so bloody hot down 'ere?" Rose asked her, fanning her face with her hand "Don't you have air conditioning?"

"Yes, but it's broken. We have written to the technician so many times but they don't seem to come to the solution of the problem."

"And how much time has passed since it began working poorly?" the Doctor looked up from the panel he was sonicking

Cathica, already suspicious, eyed at them "You're not really from management, are you?"

"Oops, caught. But I'm a curious person, and I like to ask about things. And there is a lot to ask about Satellite 5. The alien immigration, for example."

"What about it?" she asked, confused

"Are aliens permitted on Satellite 5?"

"Of course."

"And why is that I haven't seen any? And what about all the little conflicts the Empire has faced against them? Have they been broadcasted? For the face you're making I feel this is the first time you hear about it. Someone is controlling the information and all of you, you oh so called journalists, haven't noticed."

Flustered, snapped "Whatever you're implying, I don't want to have nothing to do with it."

"But that's the root of the problem. You're a journalist, you should ask about things that doesn't fit. For example: why the Empire is holding back of technical advance? I'm sure you haven't evolved for the last ninety-one years this station has been operative."

The panel chirped and showed the design of the whole Satellite. The Doctor, with his screwdriver, made it change, showing then some colours, red and blue, on the graphic.

"We have accessed to the mainframe, and now it's showing the ventilation system. The heat is not a system problem, but something –or someone- is redirecting the cold upstairs, leaving the residual heat of the machines for the lower levers. What is happening here is what you should have asked yourself long ago, Cathica. I have to know what's happening in this famous Floor 500."

"I still don't want to be related to this."

"Okay, I won't force you abandon the comfortable ignorance, but Rose and I are going to get to the end of the issue." The speakers of the screen beeped and it showed an encrypted code "Oh, guess we have been invited. C'mon Rose." He urged her as the door of the lift flew open

"You won't come back!"

"So that's better for you, isn't it?" they stepped inside the elevator "No more annoying questions. Goodbye, Cathica." And the doors closed, leaving her staring their white metallic surface.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The elevator moved silently, leaving a suffocating silence as they waited to arrive at their destination. Rose bit her lower lip in nervousness.

"What are we going to face up there?"

"I haven't the slightness."

"Will it be dangerous?"

"Probably, yes."

She sighed "Then try not to annoy the bad guys."

He was about to answer when they heard a soft cling and the doors opened as silently as before. At the same time, Rose shivered unconsciously as really icy air went inside the tiny space. The room outside was frozen, with ice stalactites and a light blue aura that she identified with icebergs.

The space was divided in layers of plastic, and they went towards one room where the light seemed to change. There they saw two lines of workers nearly frozen looking at the screens before them, where the news of all the Empire were broadcasted.

She recognized the head of a familiar blonde and rushed towards her "Suki!" she exclaimed, but when she turned her around, eyes without light looked back at her and she couldn't contain a shiver.

"Oh, don't worry dear, she's already dead." They turned around and saw a short man, with blond hair nearly white and a mad smile "Nice to meet you at last, well even if I don't know your names at all, do I? You don't seem to appear in the records, isn't it troublesome?"

"Are you the one that made all of this?"

"Oh, no dear, absolutely not. I'm just the Editor, a simple pawn of my superior. Oh, and I forgot. Before you try to do anything stupid…" he moved his left hand and the frozen zombies grabbed them from behind, immobilizing them "We don't want another incident. The last girl was a fighter, she was. She even tried to kill me, isn't it hilarious?"

"Would it really be?"

"Of course. As I said before I'm just another piece of my superior's control; easily replaced. You see, this 'Human Empire' is more alien than everybody believes. My superior has controlled all of them at his liking for the past ninety-one years, let's say that he allows us to live in exchange of servitude."

"And who is this superior of yours?"

"Oh, he's known as the Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxorodenfoe. I prefer to call him Max. You know, more intimate. And now that I think about it, you haven't said hello. How rude of you, don't you think so, Max?" he asked looking up. Rose followed his gaze and discovered in horror who that 'Max' was: an enormous alien with an ugly face and a very big mouth that was attached to the rooftop. His teeth were surely bigger than her head. She shuffled, but the arms around her tightened.

"How could you possibly let this thing control you?"

"It was that or be eaten, honey. But it was very helpful. With his influence, we built Satellite 5, where we controlled the news, creating a climate of fear of an alien invasion, which make them close the frontiers, stopping whoever that could discover that symbiosis. It's the perfect form of slavery, when the slaves don't even know they are being controlled."

"But the human race is a very curious species. Surely someone would have seen something wasn't quite right here."

"Of course, but we have a system to detect wonder in people's minds. The chips on their head are in contact of the main computer, and when we detect suspicion are… how do they call it? _Promoted._ Heading to their own death willingly, isn't it hilarious?"

The elevator's doors opened again, a movement the Editor didn't see as he was positioned backwards but Rose saw. She then saw a pair of black eyes looking at them frightened and she almost laughed in relief. _'Cathica!'_

She looked up subtly at her partner and saw the Doctor looking too. He had noticed.

"So… Max, was he called? He is such a big boy, isn't he? A body of this dimensions needs a really active metabolism, which would generate so much heat he would boil depending where he is. But that's why there is such a mess with the ventilation system, you're venting the heat to the inferior floors, leaving him cool and nice. That's why he lets you live, the station is his life support."

He turned angry towards the screen, but when he spoke up again he seemed composed "I guess your intelligence is superior to us humans, isn't it Time Lord?"

"How do you…?"

He laughed mischievously "Oh, I told you before. Once someone connects with the stream I can obtain all the information he keeps, and" he turned on a TV, showing Adam, his forehead open and connected and Rose's phone on her hand "it seems that one of your pets hasn't behaved himself. Or should I call him your companion, as you call Rose? Oh no, he's just a newbie, she has been with you longer."

"Is he talking about your boyfriend?" he muttered, angry

"Not anymore." She said back, furious at the boy

He walked predatory towards them, but with their arms immobilized by the frozen zombies they couldn't move an inch. He then caught a metallic instrument resting on the ice-covered table and tied their hands together.

"I guess we don't have time to transplant you a chip, we will have to do this in the old way. I'm quite interested on what I've read, Doctor with the time machine. You, who has the knowledge of the whole universe from the beginning to the end, would you mind tell me?"

"I won't."

"You know what I could do with this knowledge? I could change the course of the humanity, making them disappear before they even existed! The power to rule the time!"

"That's why I'm not telling you."

"Oh what a pity. I guess I shall go to plan B." he clicked a button and suddenly a pang of electricity went through her and when it stopped, the only thing that stilled her was the Doctor's arms, that somehow grabbed hers despite the metallic handcuffs.

"Rose! Are you okay?"

"Yes." She answered weakly "It was nothing." She stood up again, trembling from the residual electricity being pumped inside her body

"So? Have you decided on telling me?"

"He won't."

"Oh so the little one is still biting, huh? Let's see if you like my treatment again." And the bonds jolted current again with more intensity, making her scream.

"Stop this!"

"Not unless you tell me where the TARDIS is."

Her vision became fuzzy with pain and felt an intense heat involving her, another effect of the voltage that was crossing her.

Was it?

Because when it stopped and she fell to the ground she did it on a puddle. A non-frozen one. The Doctor helped her to stand up and saw her wet clothes and grinned.

"Look at her being so human." He muttered. Then, raising his voice, he inquired "Hey, Editor. Isn't it hot here?"

He looked around, the ice stalagmites already melting. "NO!" he ran to the monitor and switched it to the camera footage, where he could see Cathica linked in, reversing the environmental settings "You! I won't allow you!"

He wrote codes on his computer furiously, fighting back the woman's infiltration without much exit. The Doctor used this spare time to check on Rose's condition. She just smiled and grabbed his hand, linking their fingers.

The monitor exploded leaving the mad man with his face dim. The fisted the keyboard enraged and then the floor began to shudder, making him fall.

A familiar soft wheezing sound made the Doctor look down to Rose, who was already free of her bonds and was now sonicking his.

"Why do you have my screwdriver?"

"Took it from your pocket. It's getting bloody hot up 'ere, we should go."

"Yeah, but let's first look for Cathica."

They arrive at the newsroom, where Cathica was still laying on the stretcher, her eyelids closed and the gap on her head still open. The Doctor snapped his fingers and the connection pole closed, what made her open her eyes.

"Here you are, acting human for the first time." He smiled proudly at her "Using all that you learnt about Jagrafess to defeat him. Well done!"

She nodded and stood up, and just then they ran to the elevator. With a soft 'ding' they were separated from the hell that was Floor 500 and they descended to the floor where the TARDIS –and Adam– was.

People was rushing on and off alarmed and not fully understanding what was going on. The stalls were firmly closed, and its owners had already ran off.

"Well, I think I'll have to give some explanations." Cathica joked "I'm not really sure they will believe me, though."

"Of course they will. And now it's time to change things, make the Human Empire as bountiful as it should be, and you can be a pioneer of that change. So go there and be human! Spread the word."

"I will, Doctor. Be sure of it." She flashed a smile and left, heading to a group of people who was staring at them confused.

"So another job well done. Now let's go find the kid and get out of here." He turned left and left, not even waiting Rose to follow him. He was furious at him because of his stupidity, and –even if he wouldn't say- he was angry at Rose for making him bring him.

When they arrived at the news-stream room he was already disconnected, looking around numb and confused. He saw them and made a smile, but when he caught a glimpse of the Doctor's face he quickly lost it. It was indescribable, a face with no emotions, but those eyes… those eyes were a warning of what was about to come, an ancient glint that you wouldn't like to see looking at you. It was like an oncoming storm, dangerous, dark and powerful.

"You. Come. We're going."

He simply could nod and follow after them. Rose regarded him a gaze, but it wasn't better that the Doctor's. They knew what he had done, and they wasn't happy with it.

The trip on the TARDIS was abnormally silent and still, no one braking the tension between them, and when they landed and opened the door, he was surprised to see they were at the living room of his mother's house.

"Not just you play with technology you don't know, you try to foreknow the future for your own sake and profit." He put out his sonic screwdriver and used it on the answering machine, making it immediately explode "One thing solved."

"And what about the connecting port?"

"That's your responsibility. You played with fire and got burn, so you'll have to deal with it the rest of your life. And be careful, you don't want to be dissected if someone discovers your head opens up in a zap!" he snapped his fingers, making the port open. He snapped them back to close it. "So that's it. Live a quiet life, Adam. Farewell."

He saw Rose reclined on the door mark of the TARDIS, an apologetic expression on her face "Rose!" he tried "Don't leave me like this."

"I'm sorry Adam, but you went over what is allowed. We can no longer travel with you."

The Doctor stood close to her and she raised her body, leaving him space to close the door.

When the TARDIS dematerialized, the Doctor once again was checking her up for any internal damage the high voltage might have caused.

"I told you already, I'm okay."

"But let me make sure of it! It feels like in the short period of time you have been travelling with me you have visited the infirmary more that Earth." He sighed

"But it's usually more for your protectiveness than real wounds on my skin."

"It's because you end up involved in all kind of dangerous situations, I don't even know how."

"I bit jeopardy-friendly, I am."

"Quite right too. Just…"

He looked down at his screwdriver, checking her wrists for the third time. The blue light of his tool made her skin paler than usual.

"What?" she asked as he didn't end the last sentence

"… be careful next time, okay? I don't want anything bad happening to you."

"I can promise that. Could we stay a little bit of time in the Time Vortex? I've been a bit electrocuted and I'm feeling a bit tired myself" she smiled widely at his worried face and stood up "Goodnight Doctor"

"'Night." He mumbled, looking at his screwdriver. Had it just…? Shrugging the thought to the back of his already overloaded brain, he stretched his shoulders and couldn't help to yawn. Maybe it was a good idea to rest his eyes an hour or so, catch up with deprived sleep.

So he went ahead to his own room and closed the door behind him. The TARDIS dimed her lights, and the only two occupants of the ship drifted off to sleep.


	10. Mother's day

**Ch. 8. Mother's Day**

_"Why can't I remember?"_

_"Because you shouldn't… yet."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

After leaving Adam behind and a good rest, Rose sat on the couch beside the swimming pool, which was, somehow, located inside the library. Really, with all that bumpy rides, who would risk such a big collection of books?

She lay down, looking how the soft light reflected by the water danced on the roof, forming images that appeared and disappeared at their will. She drummed her fingers on the floor and hummed for herself a song that was stuck inside her head.

Her hair had grown a bit without her noticing, and at this position, some strands touched the ground. Her roots were of a different colour, meaning her natural colour was darker than the one she had right now. '_Maybe I'll leave it like this' _she thought '_I don't feel like dyeing it again.'_

He thought about Adam, and what could happen if she screwed up like him. Of course she wasn't nuts, she wouldn't even dare to try to change the future with foreknowledge but, what if she did something that disgusted him? What if she put them in real danger?

What if she was no longer able to travel with him?

Then she realized something. If he left her behind she had nowhere to return. No specific house, no family, nothing. She shivered, terrified.

She really should stop thinking that way and just be the way she was, to stop being pessimistic, to stop calling for the storm. But once the doubt was set inside her mind, it was difficult to get rid of it. Even if she tried to think about something else, it was there, hidden deep inside, prepared to pop up when she didn't expect it.

Was it because of Adam or had it been there before?

A soft knock got her away of her line of thoughts. She raised her gaze and saw the Doctor, all leather and cotton, resting on the door frame, arm crossed and observing her.

"Hello." He said softly

"Hi." She replied, weaker than she wanted

"You all right?"

"Yeah… it's nothing."

"Look, I know you liked the boy but you have to understand, the rules of time travel made me-"

"I know." She interrupted "It's not that."

He went inside the room and sat beside her legs. She returned her gaze to the transparent water, which moved slowly by an invisible force "Then what's it?"

"It's nothing, I told you. That aside, where are we going next?" she sat up as she shrugged the bad wonders aside and faked enthusiasm. The Doctor eyed her disbelievingly, but then shrugged. She was just a bit affected for the boy's parting. That was all.

Wasn't it?

"Well," he coughed awkwardly "I thought that maybe we could go to the old good London. Maybe eat some chips." He grinned _'avoid some fanboys of you' _he added mentally. He won one of Rose's slow smiles and couldn't stop feeling a bit proud of himself.

"Ok, but this time it's on you."

"Wait but I don't have money."

"Do your jibbery pockery thingy with your screwdriver. It worked last time." She stood up, a dashing smile plastered on her face with a hint of tongue between her teeth "Gonna get changed. I won't be long, I promise." And then she left, leaving the Doctor sitting there besotted, then he coughed awkwardly. Right, he had things to do. Like preparing the TARDIS. Yeah.

So he set up the coordinates to one of his favourite cities. Would later 2006 be enough to avoid that Mickey boy? He sincerely doubted it, but he would have to take the chance. He was really intrigued by the pink and yellow-ish human on board, and he desperately wanted to know her background so he could understand her better. That kind, selfless human that had an acceptance for every alien that crossed her path.

A noise behind him made him turn his head around where the object of his thoughts was, all ready for their next adventure and he smiled, amazed at how she had trespassed his boundaries until she had become something he could call a _friend. _The universe never ceased to amaze him.

"So, when are we going?"

"2006. Nothing bad happens, no aliens around –well, except me. Ah, and the Slitheen thing. No big deal."

She looked at him insecure as she paced around the console "We have already been here, we won't bump with our past selves, are we?"

"It's not likely. I set the coordinates so it is three months after Downing Street's incident. See, I already thought it all."

She hummed "How thoughtful of you." She teased and grabbed the railing, ready to fly "When you're ready, Doctor."

After all the bumps and shakes Rose had grown accustomed to, she stood up and rushed to the door, opening it and… tripping with a coffee table just outside it, making her fall flat on a green and yellow sofa.

The Doctor, just behind her, looked around confused "Where the hell are we?"

"In my living room!" he turned around and saw a blonde woman in her mid-forties shaking, a frying pan in her hand pointing at their direction. He shivered involuntary. Rose, meanwhile, was trying to get rid of all the big suffocating cushions around her "H-how did you bloody appear in my living room?! I heard a strange sound comin' from here and then this bloody blue _thing_ is standing 'ere and you two come out 'ere."

"Em… weeeell… it's quite a long story."

"THEN BEGIN WITH WHY ARE YOU TWO BREAKING IN MY HOUSE! Oh, my god, you're aliens, aren't ya? Like the ones of Downing Street. You gonna kill me!? OH MY GOD, HELP!"

"Wait!" Rose, now at the top of that disgusting pillows, mediated "We're not going to hurt you. I'm human."

The woman abruptly stopped shouting and looked at her in bewilderment. She let go of the pan, which hit the floor with a dry clang, and she made some steps forward the girl. She opened her arms and pulled her inside a tight embrace that left her with no air.

"Rosie, oh my god you're alive!" she cried on her hair. Then she let her go and scanned her upside down "You're not hurt, are ya? Where the bloody hell have you been this year and a half? You got me worried here!"

"Uhm, it's a bit hard to explain. Why don't we talk about it with a cuppa?"

"Of course! Wait a sec, I'll be right here." And she fled to the kitchen

She sighed and sat down again on the too mellow sofa, feeling her body being sucked by the enormous pillows again. The Doctor remained up, pacing around the tiny room, his arms on his back.

"She knows you."

"So it seems."

When he saw her sulking, he raised an eyebrow "Why aren't you happy? She could be your mother!"

"It makes it actually worse. Don't misunderstand me, I _am _happy, but how would you explain to your own mother you don't remember a tiny bit of the time you two had together? All the shared experiences forgotten for god knows when."

"But she can tell you."

"And it's gonna hurt her while doing it."

"I see." Her voice came once again from the door frame. She put down the tea tray and grabbed her hand. She was shaking "You don't remember anything? Oh I'm sorry, honey, it must have been terrifying." She raised their joined hands to her lips and kissed them.

"I think we owe you an explanation."

"Yeah, but that can wait. Now have your tea before it gets cold. I made your favourite flavour. I didn't know his likes, so I made him the same."

After one satisfying cuppa, which the Doctor drank after adding three more spoons of sugar, they were chatting animatedly. Well, the Doctor was checking something on the TV with his screwdriver.

"Well, I think it's time you explain how did you broke into my house with that blue box."

"Um, the fact is that this… "Box" is our vehicle. It's called a TARDIS, and we explore the universe with this."

"The universe? But it's impossible!"

"Well, she is quite impossible." Rose stated, and saw from the corner of her eye the Doctor smiling a bit.

"… Is it alien?" she inquired wary

"Yes."

"Is _he_ alien?"

"Yes ma'am." The Doctor popped behind her and grinned "And I think your TV could be a little sonic. How does it sound you could watch all the channels from here to the planet Ruflettepei?"

She screamed "Oh my god! He's an _alien_! Rose did he hurt you?"

"No! He found me and took care of me when I…" she didn't end the sentence, but let it hang on the air between them. The woman shifted on her seat, clearly uncomfortable

"I see… Well, I s'pose I should tell you who I am, shouldn't I? For the record, I'm sorry hon but I'm not your mother. My name's Jackie Tyler and I am your neighbour, and somehow your caretaker. You live beside me –well, used to live."

"And where's my family?" she asked confused

"Shush, lemme finish. Look your story is quite complicated." she took a sip of her tea "Five years ago this… really gorgeous man came to my door and told me you were going to live there and asked me to take care of you –really, who would leave a child on her own? But I couldn't say no to that bright blue eyes…" she commented dreamily.

So since then I've taken care of you. If you prefer it, you can call it being your foster mother."

"And that's it? He came and went like that, leaving you a homeless child to raise?"

"No! Your father has a busy work, but he comes visit as much as he can. He also gave me money for you upkeep, but when you finished school you began working." Unshared tears gleamed on the corners of her eyes "I tried to convince you to go to college but you were so stubborn you did what you wanted."

Rose placed her mug on the table "Was I a bad kid?"

"Oh no, no. you were the best. You always helped me with the rent and some errands. You were the baby girl I've always wanted –lost Pete, my husband before we could have a child. You were a present, sweetheart, don't even doubt it."

Rose felt warmth spread through all her body. At least she learned who she was, and she was relieved she didn't have a dark past like she feared. Did she have a lot of questions? Of course. But she was a step closer to know what happened to her.

The Doctor listened quietly the conversation, only interrupting with yelps of pain every time the TV electrocuted him. Rose and Jackie exchanged stories and anecdotes, the merry mood never leaving the room.

"Wait," Jackie stopped herself "you've been out how much time... a year and four months? You must be craving to see your place. You want me to take you there?"

Rose, not exactly sure how many time had actually passed, simply nodded. Jackie stood up, grabbed some spare keys, which were on the cupboard next to the door, and opened the front door, the two travellers following behind.

"I took care of your things while you were away." Jackie rambled "I didn't touch anything –well, I cleaned the fridge and bins, and the flat hastily- but nothing more. Everything should be where it was before you parted, so I hope some memories come back to you."

She opened the door with the key she was holding and let them in. The room they went in was pretty tidy, with some jackets lying on a light grey sofa. The furniture wasn't modern nor antique, just a mixture of both of them that was pretty nice and functional at the same time.

"I'll just leave you here so you can put everything together. If you need me give me a call." Jackie added before closing the door behind her.

Rose looked around her. It reminded her slightly of her room inside the TARDIS, did it mean her memories about this place weren't totally lost? She opened a door and saw what should be her bedroom. The decoration was the same of all the tiny flat, but it had more shades of pink in it. She sat down on the tiny bed, and deciding it wasn't enough, she lay down. She looked up at the roof decorated with fluorescent stars and sighed.

"You okay?" his voice resonated in the little bedroom.

"I think so. It's just… we think we will obtain answers but we finish with more questions than when we started. Why my previous life was so utterly complicated?"

"Well, it still is. Don't forget you actually travel in time and space. Thanks to me and my marvellous TARDIS. Hello." He waved her hand which made her smile "Anyway, what I meant is that you wouldn't have to worry about your unanswered questions, it's what makes the road funnier. My life would be really boring if I had all the answers."

"You mean you don't?" she sat up and faked shock, raising her hand to cover her mouth in a comical way

"Of course not. Even a genius like me ignores things. This is a really big universe and it never ceases to amaze me." He looked around the room and continued "Well, I'll leave you with your things. If you need me I'll be in the TARDIS… doing some… tinkering_._ Yes, tinkering stuff."

She laughed as he left, and then she was facing the empty room alone again. She wondered what she could do when her eyes rested on a certain portrait. It was of Jackie and a younger version of her, both of them smiling at the camera. She noted she was wearing much more make-up she was now, and her pink sweater made contrast with the elegant clothes the older woman was wearing. It seemed to show an intimate Christmas party, but it didn't matter much as the two of them looked so happy.

And then she faced the reality: she had found where she belonged. She had Jackie, that woman with a strength of fifty men and the willpower of a fighter, the woman that had raised her for a quarter of her life. She could stay here. She wouldn't be a bother for him anymore.

But why would she?

He didn't tell her to leave, and she found out she didn't want to. She felt some remorse for leaving Jackie alone again, but it couldn't be helped. Right now her place was beside the Doctor, seeing what the other humans hadn't seen yet.

She grabbed bag from her closet and began filling it with clothes and other objects she found around. She enveloped the portrait carefully with a scarf and stuffed it inside along with some jumpers and trousers.

She opened and registered her drawers and found a gold chain with a clock hanging and swaying. It was made of the same golden material, and even if the seconds spire moved regularly, the clock didn't make a sound. Behind it there was engraved a sun, with circular patterns decorating its middle. She unclasped the chain and let the key of the TARDIS slip, then clasped it around her neck. Yes, like this she wouldn't lose the key anywhere.

She finished packing her bag, leaving the laptop on the table mid closed and closed the door. She grabbed the apartment keys and one jacket hanging on the back of a chair and went out her older house to go home.

.-.-.-.-.-.

He had been caught again by Jackie trying to sneak around to his TARDIS, and had made him have another tea as they waited for Rose. She was eyeing him as she had little sips of her fuming tea, taking care not to burn his tongue while doing it. He took a sip; it wasn't sweet enough.

"So," Jackie began, catching his attention "What have you two been doing until now?"

"Well, see the universe, save people… all kind of stuff."

"I wasn't talking about that."

"Then wha…? Oh. _Oh._" He added, already seeing where her thoughts were drifting to "No, of course I wouldn't do _that!" _

"Well, you're a man and she's a beautiful girl. Everyone would jump to this conclusion."

"We're just friends. I don't _do _this sort of things, much less with a companion."

She took another sip and muttered an 'If you say so.' Then she fell silent, the Doctor with her. They remained silent for some minutes, he not standing being sat and still much more time and began playing with his screwdriver. One shot of sonic waves almost hit the already upgraded TV.

"You are gonna take her with you again, won't you?"

He stopped messing around with the sonic and looked at her. She was staring right back at him too serious for his liking. That was one of the main reasons he didn't do families, it meant facing worried humans with a strong urge of overprotection towards his companions, which also leaded to angsty conversations and warnings.

"If she wants to come with me, I will." He simply stated

"And I guess there's nothing I can say to convince you against it, is there?" She sighed and smiled at him "Her favourite food is fish and chips and her birthday's the 23rd of April. Make sure to visit once in a while and take care of her, you daft alien. If I hear you've hurt her on some way I'll find you and I'll kill you with one single slap, you hear me?"

He smiled back "Yes, ma'am."

"And don't call me that. It makes me seem much older than I am."

"Okay, Jackie." He stood up and moved to his ship's door

The door opened and a running Rose came inside, a heavy-looking bag resting on her right shoulder. When she saw him standing there, she smiled, with her tongue poking out her teeth and passed him the bag.

"Now you can't get rid of me, Doctor."

"I wasn't dreaming about it. Could you open the door, as my hands are full of your stuff?"

She took her key hanging on her necklace and opened it, letting him go through it. She turned around and saw Jackie looking back at her, her eyes already damp. She opened her arms and hugged her, getting a warm feeling inside.

"See you soon Jackie, and thanks for everything. If you need us you just have to call."

"And make sure you call that old neighbour of yours once in a while and tell me your stories, all right? And come for Christmas dinner. And on your birthday so I can give you your present, and…"

"Yes I get it! We'll visit you as much as we can, don't worry." She smiled sweetly and broke free of her suffocating embrace "I gotta go. See you soon!"

"Take care, both of you!" the doors closed and the blue box disappeared just in front of her bare eyes, and left her blinking with confusion. Those alien things were sure very confusing.

"Good, she has left." A voice behind her said, startling her. She turned around and suffocated an exclamation

"Mr Harkness! It has been so long!"

He rubbed his stiff neck "Yes, about half a year or so. My job has kept me away too much time."

"I always tell you to look for a nearer position. Anyway, have you seen Rose?"

"Yes, but I haven't had the time to speak to her."

"How come not? Who knows when we're going to see her again, with that alien and that time machine of his."

"Don't you worry, Jackie. I will see them soon."

Leaving Jackie confused at his certainty, she could only nod and offer him a cup of tea.

**CHAN CHAN CHAAAN! MORE QUESTIONS FOR YA! I kinda feel bad for giving you so many questions and almost any answers, but it's too funny to mess with you.**

**Anyway, this two weeks I gained some new followers. Thank you so much for giving a shot to the story! if any of you want to talk about the story or just ramble about anything you can review or even PM me!**


	11. Interlude 2

**So I almost skipped this upload because I'm at my friend's house in a sleepover and her internet has been giving me problems since yesterday night (I won't say I almost cried in despair). Buuuuuut we solved them (somehow) and here it is, the next chapter, for all of you (it's a sweet little interlude but meh). Enjoy :)**

**Interlude 2.**

"Ouch! Don't press!"

She sighed and dropped the cloth to the bucket full of water and ice "If you don't stop behaving like a child you are going to be the one taking care of your cheek."

He huffed "As if. It was Jackie who slapped me, so it's your responsibility."

She sighed again and put the cool cloth against his red cheek again. His skin felt oddly hot against her fingertips "Well I can't say you don't deserve it."

"Why?!"

"You said her pie was hideous."

He looked shockingly horrified considering the situation "But it had pears, Rose. _Pears._ I hate pears._"_

"She was trying to be a good guest! Even if we pop up in her living room at haphazard days she still makes an effort."

The Doctor didn't listen to her and began playing with his screwdriver again. Something nearby made a ding sound and she could smell burnt.

"Stop. You'll break something if you continue to use it randomly."

"Rose, I know perfectly well what I'm doing."

"Yeah? And why is that box there smoking?"

He cursed and stood up, rushing to the producer of the thick smoke that was filling the room. She shook her head hopeless but with a smile on her face. It seemed he had completely forgotten the wound in his cheek.

It had been three months in Earth since she had visited Jackie for the first time, but for her it had only been two weeks. It was very confusing to keep a track of time inside the TARDIS, but her clock helped her to calculate more or less how much time they had spent together.

It was almost a year, wasn't it? Somehow, she didn't feel it was such a long time. She still remembered when she had woken up inside her room, and since then they hadn't stop rushing, saving people everywhere they went.

He said he didn't do domestics, but was it really true? All their days were the same: wake up, visit a planet, run for their lives and return to their TARDIS, where then they read a book or he did some tinkering with his mechanical stuff. For her this felt very domestic.

"Rose, the sonic waves have opened the box!" he grinned at her while showing the box. She grabbed it and looked at the inside.

She observed the contents of the box "What are these things?"

"Mementos of different planets. You see this?" he picked up a cylindrical object "It's a musical instrument from the planet Thot, and this is a shell from Woman Wept."

"Woman wept?"

"It's a planet. It's called like this because of his resemblance of a woman crying. Its lakes are astonishing; well, they _were_ before all the planet froze and the life there became inviable. I'll take you sometime."

"It sounds great." She grinned "Now, how do you play that thing?"

They spent the rest of the afternoon together, the Doctor teaching her how to play the alien flute.

Yes, even if he didn't want to admit it, he was indeed doing domestics.


	12. The empty child

**Ch. 9. The empty child**

_"I can't hold it… it burns too much."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Everything was all right when the alarms went off. The Doctor moved towards the control screen and huffed. He quickly averted his eyes downwards to the controls and began messing with them.

"What's this noise?" Rose asked shouting due to the pitch sound, her hands covering her sensible ears.

He didn't raise his gaze from the screen "Mauve alert."

"Mauve alert?"

"Yes. It's the universally recognized colour for danger. You humans use red instead. Really, who came to that? It's stupid. All humans asking for help, the rest of the universe dancing."

"But what's the danger?"

"It's not ours, it's the cylinder before us. It's flying out of control and something's asking for help. It kind of seems like a capsule, someone could be inside there. There, I've locked the controls to follow it. If we're lucky we could reach them soon."

Suddenly, the metallic capsule began jolting in and out the time vortex, messing with their settings. "No, no! Come on big girl, don't lose it!" the capsule jolted again, this time out of the vortex for good "Damn, I won't let you go away!"

They jumped out of the vortex and landed. He checked the screen again "We're in London. Let's go."

They stepped out at a dark alley, the buildings around them made of brick, without any decorations. A strong wind stroked them and made her shiver, wishing she had been wearing a jumper instead of her light Union Jack T-shirt. She fastened up her jacket as much as she could.

"Hm… it seems that the delay going out the vortex has made us land some time late –maybe two weeks or so. Ah, that jumps. This is annoying." He grumbled

She looked around the dark alley "And how do we find the cylinder now?"

"Well, we'll have to ask if someone's seen it crashing. But where… oh do you hear it? Music! It must be a pub. Let's go ask there!"

She looked at the inviting blue box beside them "Why don't we just scan for alien technology back inside the TARDIS?"

"C'mon where's the fun in _that? _Are you coming?"

She sighed giving up, and was about to follow him, but a soft voice behind her made her stop. She listened carefully, not really knowing where it came from, but there it was again.

"… Mummy?"

She looked up to the rooftop. There, standing alone, was a figure of a child obscured by the moonlight. She turned around to alert the Doctor, but he was no longer there. She scoffed annoyed. Really, who made up rules and then didn't follow them?

She made up her mind and climbed up a pipe to the rooftop. It was a really wobbly trip, but she made it without falling or breaking the pipe. She stared at the sky and gaped: it was full of gigantic balloons with little gaps between them.

"Oh no…" she muttered

"Mummy?" the child's voice made her turn around. He has standing on a cargo container next to the roof where she was, looking at her. At the moonlight illuminating his front, she could see what he looked like.

He was a child no more than six years old, with light hair and a gas mask hiding his face. His clothes were rumpled, and he had a bad-looking wound on his left hand.

"Hello there, are you lost?"

"Mummy!" he climbed down to the next building

"No, don't go away! I want to help you!" she looked him go and when she was about to follow she made a stop. Between her and the child there was a gap 10 feet wide, more down. How could she possibly cross it without losing his track?

Then a rope dangled softly before her, as if asking her to be used. Smiling confidently she grabbed it and climbed up to get a boost, but when she looked down again she was no longer where they had landed, but she was flying London sky under a barrage balloon. Sirens went off, warning of a nearing attack.

"You've got to be kidding me!" she shouted as she gripped the rope as hard as she could. She still didn't want to become a London puddle.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor scoffed as he went outside the pub. Where the hell was Rose? Really, why did he take his time to think of Time travellers' rules if no one was going to follow them? A black cat caught his attention and he kneeled down to stroke his fur. It purred in contentment.

"One day I'm going to find a companion that actually does what I say. It's like I'm taking care of little kids." He stood up and the cat flew off "Well, where could possibly Rose be in the middle of the London Blitz?" Knowing her, getting into trouble. Without him. That really was no fair.

A soft ring made him turn around. It was the TARDIS, more exactly the telephone outside it.

"What? How could possibly be this thing ringing? It's not working…" he took out his sonic, but a young girl appeared from his right.

"Don't pick it up."

"Excuse me?"

"Don't answer. It's him."

"Look, I've got some questions." He turned to the phone and scanned it with the screwdriver "How could this be ringing? And who is he?" he looked up at her again, only to find her gone.

He grabbed the earpiece and put it beside his ear. On the other part of the line, he could hear a soft voice, incomprehensible at first, but it soon cleared off.

"Mummy? Are you my mummy? Muuuuuuuuummy. Mummy? Are you my mummy?" and with that the line fell dead again. He placed the phone where it belonged and did the best he knew: wander off. A loud siren went off, and the people came out of their houses to hide into the shelters.

From the corner of his eye he saw the same girl as before, the girl that had disappeared in thin air, go inside one of the unoccupied houses. Looking right and left, he decided to follow her.

Inside, he could hear more voices coming from what was supposed to be an empty living room. As he grew closer, he could pick up what they were saying. He decided to stay hidden for a bit.

"Nancy, can we eat now?" someone, more likely a little boy, whined

"Shush, Michael. We've got to thank god for the meal."

"But we're hungry." Another voice added

"Do as I say." She replied. All of them became silent, only soft mumbling could be heard, so the Doctor chose that moment to come to view.

"So you take advantage of the evacuation to find food and supplies. Very clever."

All of them snapped their eyes open and gasped. There were all children, being Nancy, the one he had seen at the alley, the oldest "Don't worry, I won't give you away. But we're on the middle of the London Blitz, and even if you're homeless you should have been evacuated long ago."

"We were, but we came back." A little boy answered

"Michael!" Nancy shushed him

"Why?" the Doctor asked instead

"Just because of reasons." She replied

The Doctor just shrugged his shoulders "Anyway, have you seen a strange cylinder falling off the sky? It's more likely it had crashed during night, and it's bigger than a bomb. Look, I'm going to draw how it's like… does anyone have a paper?"

He was about to draw it when a soft knock on the window interrupted him. Hearing gasps of terror, he turned around to see a strange kid with a gas mask outside looking at them.

"Mummy?" came his muffled voice from outside "Are you my mummy?" he stepped back, out of view. Some moments later they heard him knocking on the door, asking again and again the same question.

"Nancy…" one boy, terrified, called for her

She stood up and rushed to the door, closing it with the lock. Still she supported the door as being afraid something could smack it down "Hurry up! Leave by the back way!"

"But what about you?"

"Don't make me repeat it! Go!"

"What is happening? Why don't you let this child come inside?" the Doctor, clearly confused demanded. He leaned on the door as it vibrated heavily after a hard hit from outside.

"He's not exactly a child, not anymore. We have to go out too."

Suddenly, the cat slot flew opened to show the hand of a child, desperate to come inside. On the top of it there was a black scar. His tiny fingers opened and closed, awed to reach for something.

"Don't let him touch you!"

"Why?"

"If he does you will become empty like him."

The child withdrew his hand, and suddenly the phone of the house began to ring. The Doctor walked slowly towards it and picked it up. The child's voice could be heard both from the speaker and from outside, asking for his mummy without stop. A hand grabbed the speaker and hung up.

"We have to go before he can come inside."

"Nope, I'm staying. I have to know what's wrong with him."

"Are you crazy?! He will turn you in one of them."

"He's asking for his mummy! He's lost!"

She looked at him with her brow furrowed "As you wish." She snapped. Then, she turned around and flew away by the back door.

The knocks returned to the door, the child asking to be let in.

"Why aren't you with the other kids? Why are they afraid of you?"

"Let me iiiiin."

"Answer me first."

"Scared of bombs, let me iiiiiiiiin. Mummyyyyyy."

"Okay, I'll let you in, but you will have to help me then." He unclasped the metal chain and unlocked the door, only to stare at an empty street. He went out and scanned his surroundings, but the little boy was nowhere to be seen. As if he had vanished in thin air.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Meanwhile Rose was having a hard time to stay hanging on the rasping rope. Her arm muscles were trembling in exhaustion, and her hands felt sore and burned every time she lost a bit her grip. _The blisters will be horrible_, she thought. _Well, they are better than dying. _The strong wind that made her swing didn't help at all.

She felt a cramp in one of her arms and she let go, hanging with just one arm, but quickly sliding off. When her bare fingers couldn't stand it more, she let go and fell, rapidly gaining speed.

She screamed her lungs out and closed her eyes, but suddenly she stopped without reaching the hard floor. She opened her eyes slowly and observed she was engulfed in blue energy that maintained her static in the air.

"Deactivate your mobile phone so I can keep you inside the field, please." A man's voice coming from what seemed a _proper _spaceship –no offense, TARDIS, but it was too spaceship-y- asked her. She took it out and switched it off.

The ray slowly approached her to the metallic spaceship, but just an instant later she found herself into a man's arms. She looked up and saw two somehow familiar blue orbs and a beaming smile.

"Hello." He said

"Hello." She replied

Smiling, he said hello again.

And that was the last thing she heard before slipping unconscious.

.-.-.-.-.-.

When she got up, she found herself inside a very cosy spaceship. She sat down and saw the man that had rescued her in front of the control panel of the ship, still not noticing she had awoken.

"Nice ship." She said out loud

He turned around, still seating on his chair "Oh, you're awake. Don't worry, it's a secondary effect of the force field ray. It happens." He stood up "I'm Captain Jack Harkness, American volunteer of No. 133 Squadron. Nice to meet you." He showed her a blank paper, smiling smugly.

"It won't work on me, the psychic paper. And it wouldn't explain why you have and spaceship."

He turned the paper towards him and smiled "Oh but it works backwards. Look what it says here: Name: Rose Tyler. It's complicated but she's open to relationships." He smiled widely, all his teeth pearl white and perfect positioned.

Her face felt very hot, and she had no doubt she was blushing. Why the hell did it put it was complicated?

"Well, as this thingy has told you, I'm Rose Tyler. And thanks for helping me. I was… in a tight situation."

"You're welcome. Now let me see your hands, I'm sure you have hurt yourself badly."

She opened her sore palms, which had some bleeding cuts, burns and already formed blisters, what made her shrug her brow in pain. He snapped his fingers, and golden minuscule particles surrounded her hands, touching it lightly. It felt tingly and warm.

"What are them?" she asked amazed

"Nanogenes. They repair skin and internal damage. Just let them be and they'll heal you."

He fell silent, and she used the opportunity to observe him. He was a little taller than the Doctor, and he had big blue eyes and a warm smile. He clearly wasn't faking the accent, so he was likely to be American, and on a general basis, she found him rather handsome. She felt a warm feeling inside her chest, not too sure of what it was.

"You can stop acting, you know. I can smell a Time Agent from miles. I actually was expecting one of you to turn up."

The nanogenes stopped revolting her hands, leaving them white and healthy. She stared back at him, not really understanding.

"Really, cut it off. You don't fit at the time period, not with this skinny jeans and top." He smiled at her "Would you like to have a drink at my balcony? There we can discuss the topic."

"Sure." She answered, following after him, who climbed up a ladder to the outside of the ship.

Then she found herself standing on an invisible surface, the Big Ben in front of her, at touching distance.

"What do you think?" he asked, two champagne glasses on one of his hands and a green bottle in the other.

"A bit cliché, but beautiful nonetheless."

.-.-.-.-.-.

They continued talking, both of them sitting down on the top of the invisible spaceship, laughing.

"So you saw the Big Ben and thought: what a good place to hide."

"Look who's talking! The one that literary hangs around with a Union Jack T-shirt in the middle of the Blitz."

"It wasn't really planned…"

He laughed and placed his cup down, then stood up.

"Anyway, care for a dance?" he snapped his fingers and soft music began to play from inside

"Dancing Glenn Miller by the light of Big Ben?"

"I know, too cliché."

"Well, I actually thought it was a good idea." She stood up with him

He grabbed her waist with one arm and her free hand with the other. She rested the other one on his shoulder and they began to sway at the rhythm of the music.

"I hope you know where the border is. I don't want to fall today again."

"Don't worry, I have it all controlled." He grinned and made her spin "Well, I may have an offer a Time Officer would be interested with, if you're willing to negotiate."

"Hmm…" she decided to play along "It depends on what it consists, and the final prize, of course. And I would have to discuss it with my… companion, first."

"The one that makes it complicated?"

"Wha… oh." She laughed "Kind of."

"Well, I'm sure he will be interested… What fell was a Chula warship, perfectly maintained and fully equipped, and it happens to be the last of its kind –they just don't manufacture things like this one anymore. I happened to be close when it landed, and I couldn't help myself but to negotiate." They twirled together "And if some pretty Time agent can make a good offer, I wouldn't be too upset to sell it."

"It seems we've come up to such a rare opportunity. Here, a handsome boy dancing with me and offering once in a lifetime opportunity… It just seems too good to be true."

"Believe me, Rose. I can offer much more than that." He winked "Unfortunately, there is an upside down. You'll have a deadline to decide, as a German bomb will fall where the warship is in about two hours."

She stopped swaying "Oh my god, we should find the Doctor now, then."

"And I know exactly how to find him. Let me do a quick scan for alien technology and we'll be right off."

She smiled approvingly. See? She sometimes had good ideas too.

.-.-.-.-.-.

An unknowing Nancy was counting the tin cans she had managed to steal from the house. They weren't much. All that incident with Jamie had delayed her, and she was going to have a hard time to maintain all the kids until the next bombing.

She sighed, exasperated "If only that man hadn't shown up…"

"Are you talking about me?" She turned around startled and saw the man with the leather jacket again, a silly grin plastered on his face "Hmm, what you have there isn't going to be enough. What a pity."

"What do you want?" she demanded. That man seemed a magnet for trouble, and she had had enough for a night.

"Information. Because I'm a clever man, and I'm guessing that strange child it's involved to what fell from the air not too long ago, am I wrong?"

She adverted her eyes to the floor and rummaged the dust with her dirty shoes "It's not his fault." She began "There was a bomb falling near Limehouse Green station, but it didn't explode. That's when all of this began."

"It wasn't a bomb. Could you show me the way to it?"

"You can't go! It's guarded by soldiers day and night, all the perimeter surrounded by barbed wire. There's no way of sneaking in, I've tried so many times…"

"Bah, I have my own ways. Now tell me."

"But you can't go! What happened to the child it still happening! If you go there…"

He stopped mid-tracks "What? What happens if I go inside there?"

"I don't know how, but if you are near the boy or the landing, you become like him. Raggedy, empty, always asking the same questions. There's a man taking care of all of them, all the lost ones. The doctor."

He grabbed his binoculars from his never-ending pockets and observed the crash site. As the girl had told him, some soldiers were in the restricted area, rifles softly lying by their side, prepared to be on arms at the mere sight of an intruder. Really, why were weapons always involved?

"If you're not going to give up on it, you really should go and speak to Doctor Constantine. He's the one who has followed this from the start."

"Where can I find him?"

"At Albion Hospital. It's not too far from 'ere. You can be there in 10 minutes on foot."

He looked at the direction she was pointing and kept his binoculars inside his pockets again. He was about to go away, but suddenly turned around.

"What I don't understand is why you take care of all this children, putting your life in danger. None of them are related to you, but you still feed them and find them shelter, almost as if you feel guilty of not doing so."

"… my brother." She cleared the lump in her voice "My brother Jamie died during an air raid, and I couldn't do anything to avoid it. I wasn't with him then, I couldn't take care of him as I was supposed to, it's my fault that he's dead."

"It's not your fault, Nancy. Whatever happened, it wasn't your fault." And then he left, leaving her with a bag full of tin cans.

"Oh, but it really was." She muttered, before casting her eyes away of the strange man and going to the house she had left before. If she was lucky the inhabitants would still be hiding. She shrugged off the pain that came with thinking about Jamie, even if it didn't really fade away. At that moment, she had some things more important to think about.

.-.-.-.-.-.

He arrived at the main entrance of the place Nancy was talking about and had to stiffen a shiver. He didn't feel the cold as humans, but something in that place was off. And it felt really wrong.

He studied his surroundings and it didn't make it better. Every bed was occupied by a corpse, all of them with gas masks on their faces.

"What the actual…"

"It's strange, isn't it?" a voice behind him caught his attention, making him look at the owner of that raspy voice. There was an elder man, probably in his sixties or late fifties, wearing a doctor coat "There are hundreds of them, actually. All of them look the same."

He took out his screwdriver and leaned on one of the stretcher.

"Don't touch their flesh. It's what seems to convert them."

He made one step back, doing as he said, and turned the screwdriver on.

"You're Doctor Constantine, I guess. I'm the Doctor." He said, scanning one corpse

"You guessed right. I took care of them since the start."

"That's strange… that two have the same injuries, head traumas. The mask seems attached to their face as it was real skin, no lacerations nor scars."

"I can assure you they are all the same, the mask, the traumas, even the scar. Some weeks ago there was an accident: a bomb dropped and a boy was killed. We brought him here, but when we thought he was dead… he started moving."

"Is he still here?"

"…No."

The man coughed, but didn't make another move.

"Tell me more about the boy."

"Jamie, he was called. At first, all the medic were all dedicated to saving his life, but soon they began to express the same symptoms, until they looked the same as the boy. And everyone who came in contact with them began to turn into it too, like it was a plague. And now tell me, Doctor. What do you think it killed them?"

"Heart attack?"

"No."

"Asphyxia?"

"Wrong again."

"Electrocution?"

"No. Now ask me, what killed them?"

He looked at the doctor exasperated "What killed them, then?"

"The thing is, Doctor, they are not… dead." He hit one bin nearby and all the corpses sat down "They don't have life signs, but they respond to external stimulus. They just lie there, inoffensive. All I can do for them is make them comfortable until the end."

"It's really dangerous to keep them here. If someone from outside get to touch one of them and spread it…"

"And that's why they are planning to blow this hospital up. They'll do it at night, blaming a German bomb for it, but they just want to eradicate the problem from its root."

How utterly _human_ of them.

"And this Jamie boy, where is he?"

"Oh, you noticed. He's the only one that moves freely, and a week ago he escaped. You should look for Nancy, his sister. I assure you she knows more that she shows about all this. She…" before he could finish the sentence, he chocked and grabbed his neck, as if he was being strangled "…Muuu… muuummy." Then he quickly morphed, his face becoming a gas mask. He stared horrified at the eyes of the mask, who were looking back at him. And then he spoke up, sitting there, and he realized just how bad the situation was.

"Are you my mummy?"

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Hello?" a feminine voice echoed in the dark room, soon followed by a man's. That voice… he walked towards the entrance and then he saw her. That pink and yellow human, walking beside a man in uniform. He was not too comfortable with that thought.

When she saw him, she beamed and walked hurriedly at him, the man following her.

"Jack Harkness. Nice to meet you, Doctor." He shook hands with him

"I've told him about us." Rose interrupted "About our jobs as Time agents." She looked at him with a glint in her eyes and he nodded "And he has an offer to make us."

"I'm sure you'll be pleased. Now what have we got here?" he went along, leaving Rose and the Doctor alone

"Where the hell have you been?" the Doctor asked angry

"Where have _you _been. I turn around and suddenly you disappear. And then I find myself hanging on a bloody rope and this man rescues me from falling. I had to fake we were Time Agents because he knows where the cylinder has fallen and wants to sell it."

She began to walk towards the main room, but the Doctor stopped her "Before you go inside. There's something happening here, be careful."

"Okay." She smiled. Then, she remembered something nagging on her mind "Anyway, what's a Chula warship?" she asked, already walking

"…Chula?" No way… That was…

Captain Harkness was scanning the corpses, stunned. His sonic clock beeped, confirming the scan "But this is impossible! What have caused this?"

"So this Chula ship, what kind was it?"

He didn't raise his eyes "A warship."

"C'mon, there are a lot of different warships. Which kind is this one?"

"It has nothing to do with this."

"Are you sure? Because all of it started when your toy fell off the sky. So now. Which. Kind. Was. It."

"An ambulance!" he shouted furious. He messed with his clock and showed a blue hologram "This is what you were following. I checked inside –it's empty. Just space junk."

"But an ambulance?" Rose asked

"There are ambulances in wars! Look, it was all a bluff, okay? I make you follow some junk, you find me, and I make you an offer for it, telling you it would be son destroyed. Then you pay me half and when we go to actually check it out it gets destroyed before you can see it has no value. I pay you a drink with your money and then we laugh at how unfair life is. Yes! It was a con! I am a con man! But you're not Time Agents, are you?"

"We're something more like freelances."

"I should have known. The girl with the Union Jack T-shirt okay, but Mr Leather as a Captain? Yeah, sure."

The Doctor looked at his attire upside down and whispered to Rose "Do I look that bad?"

Rose observed him for a moment with amused eyes, then her gaze hardened when it returned to the Captain. Right, they had something more important to take care of.

"What we know is that after it landed they began to change into what they are now. We have to check this Chula."

"I've already told you! It was empty, I checked! Burn-out medicine transport, useless. I also programmed it so it didn't land in anything living, so it just can't have anything to do with this mess."

"It's an ambulance! What were you expecting inside it, cupcakes and flowers? The landing set something loose, a virus maybe, that is rewriting all the DNA structure of anyone who comes at the contact with it. All this problem caused by an idiot. But the question is, why is it doing it? Why are they changing into this?"

Suddenly, all the corpses sat up, and Rose almost screamed of shock. All their masked faces turned to them and they stood up. All repeating the same words, looking for their mummy. They came closer, surrounding them.

"Mummy? Mummy…"


	13. The Doctor dances

**Here we have a chapter a little bit sooner than expected (It's 0:36 here, so I deserve a little medal, right?). So here we have the second part of the 2WW adventure. I recognize I didn't change much of the canon because, well, I love it. I added some little details here and there, some cheesy moments to make it a bit different. I hope you enjoy it!**

**Ch.10. The Doctor dances**

_Everything was bright and warm, big and powerful, and she got lost in the sensation._

.-.-.-.-.-.

When the zombies were two feet far from them, the Doctor made a bold move and stepped forward. Gathering some courage, he focused as much energy as he could and opened his mouth.

"Go to your room!" all of them stopped and leaned their head not understanding "Go. To. Your. Room. I'm really, really pissed with you, so go to your room!"

All of them stepped back and returned to their beds, their heads casted downwards, like children after being scolded. They lay down on the bed peacefully and the calm returned once again at the hospital.

"Uff, I'm glad it worked. It would have been such terrible last words." He joked

A siren went off, informing that the sky was free of German airplanes.

"We should go before the mask guys get up, don't you think so, _Captain?_"

They began running, the Doctor before them, but he suddenly stopped and looked at the stairs on their right. He climbed them up and some instants later he called them, who had ran past them to the exit.

"Jack, do you have a sonic blaster?"

"Of course. New and shiny."

"Come up here, then."

They climbed up the stairs and stood in front of a heavy-looking door, locked.

"What is it?" Rose asked

"This is where they kept Jamie, the first victim of the bomb. Now if you may…"

Jack took out of his belt a futuristic gun and aimed at the lock. When he pulled the trigger it emitted blue waves, leaving a square hole on the door, which opened without effort. The Doctor went inside, and Jack supported the door for her.

"Square rays?"

He smiled gorgeously at her "The newest setting."

"I like it." She smiled with her tongue poking out of her teeth and went inside. _What a woman_, he thought.

Inside the room, the Doctor scanned every flat surface he could think of. All the walls were full of a child's drawing of a woman. There was a tiny bed, and pencils scattered on the floor. The glass separating this room and the observation deck was smashed, and an old recording device was resting on the table, already with a layer of dust on it. Jack pushed the ON button, and a clear raspy voice reproduced.

_"Do you know where you are?" Dr. Constantine asked in the recording_

_"Are you my mummy?" a voice of a child answered_

_"Do you understand what happened to you?"_

_"I want my mummy!"_

"It was only a child." Jack murmured

He scanned the walls "Yes. What can we observe in this room?"

"He's looking for his mummy." She stated

"Yes he is. And he is angry and powerful. Whatever changed him gave him the power of a god, but he doesn't know it yet."

The recording was still on so it was a background sound, and they looked some more at the room.

"So he's looking at his mother, but why does he sound as he doesn't know who is she? He asks 'Are you my mummy?' instead of 'where is my mummy?' isn't it a bit odd?" Rose wondered

"What if he didn't know? One of the homeless boys, wandering around the crashed ship, and altering him somehow. He becomes powerful, but doesn't know it, and he keeps looking for his mother. He's scared, and when he feels trapped he destroys whatever it is between him and his mummy."

The recording suddenly began making a strange noise and Rose, alerted, caught his attention "Doctor? What's this noise?"

The Doctor stilled and chuckled darkly "Oh… I didn't realize… he is one of the most powerful beings, he even made a call to the TARDIS phone. He is connected to all of the zombies downstairs, and _I sent him to his room._ Which is this one. The thing is, Rose, the tape ended thirty seconds ago, so why can we still hear him?"

They turned around and saw the boy standing at the other part of the room, always saying the same word. He pointed at them, his glassy eyes looking at them.

"Jack, the blaster!" she cried

He complied and took out… a banana. Confused, he saw as the Doctor took out his blaster and disintegrated the wall nearby, giving them a way to escape.

Before going outside, the Doctor peeped inside once again "Bring the banana!"

"Why?"

"Good source of potassium!"

When they were outside, the Captain grabbed the blaster from the Doctor's hands and reversed the ray, returning the wall at its original state.

"A banana?" he scolded

"Always bring a banana to a party. Bananas are good."

They suddenly heard hits on the wall, quickly bulking.

"We don't have much time left. We better be out."

They ran off the corridor, but nearly bumped to a group of mask zombies walking at their direction. Turning left, they saw another group, and behind them, the child was approaching.

"What are they doing? Are they being controlled by the child?"

"Yes. Every living one is him."

"Okay, changing plans. I have a sonic blaster, a sonic disruptor and a teleport. What do you have?"

"Yes, I do have a sonic... oh never mind." He took out his screwdriver and faced the crowd on their right.

"What? What is it?"

"It's just something sonic."

"Blaster? Teleporter? Disrupter? What?"

"It's sonic. Totally sonic. I'm sonicked up!" He assured him

Jack lost his patience "A SONIC WHAT?"

"Screwdriver!"

With that, Jack turned around to face him bewildered "A screwdriver?!"

The crowds were near, but that two were arguing as if nothing was happening. Rose, huffing, grabbed Jack's hand and aimed at the floor, opening a hole under them. They fell to the hard floor, groaning. She stood up and looked for something to switch on the lights. Did they have switches yet?

"Doctor, are you okay?" she asked aloud

"I could've used a warning."

"Wow the gratitude."

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack snapped "You just look at a screwdriver and think 'Oh, this could be a little bit sonic.'"

"What, you've never been bored? Never tried to dismantle shelves faster?"

Her patience was growing thinner and thinner with every sarcastic retort flying between the two _grown _men "Guys could you please stop arguing? We've got a problem here."

She found a switch and switched on the lights, waking up all the corpses surrounding them. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea after all.

The Doctor aimed a banana at them, confused it was no longer the blaster. Jack took out the blaster but made a little poof when he pulled the trigger. He hit it with his free hand.

"Damn, the additional settings really drain the battery."

If they kept going, she wasn't responsible of her actions "There's a door there!"

They went inside, running through a long corridor and going inside an empty room, before the Doctor locked the door with his screwdriver and looked smugly at Jack, as if showing him the sonic screwdriver did have some utilities. Jack ignored him.

"Where are we?"

"A storeroom. He will have a hard time to find us here, but the only principal escaping way is that door. We'll have to look for another way out."

"Doctor?"

"What?"

"Jack isn't here anymore."

He turned around and saw the spot where the captain had been standing some moments ago empty. _Fantastic._

_"Captain Harkness to storeroom." _Jack's voice came through a radio that had seen better days.

"Where the hell are you?!" he growled

_"At my spaceship. I used my emergency teleporter –I'm sorry, it's keyed to my molecular structure, I couldn't take you, guys. Anyway I'm programming my ship's teleporter to your position. It should take me five minutes, more or less."_

"And how are you speaking to us? This radio is disconnected."

_"I'm using my Om-Com. It allows me to transmit a signal to everything that has a speaker in it."_

Suddenly, some of the pieces of the puzzle fell at their right place "That's how the child called to the phone! He has the same ability!"

_"And I can heaar yooooou." _The pitch voice of the infant interfered _"I will find yooooou. Mummy I will find you."_

_"Doctor, I'm going to try to interrupt his signal manually. I'm going to start using the wavelength to transmit a continued message. I hope you like it, Rose." _A soft song began playing and filled the room. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"It's our song." She half joked. It didn't seem to amuse him at all.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Minutes went by, and the two of them were still inside that room, listening to the radio. She was sitting on a wheelchair and messing with it. He was sonicking the wall.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to find the correct resonance of the wall so we can make a hole and escape."

She chuckled "You don't trust he's coming back, do you?"

"No I don't. What I don't understand is why _you _do."

"Because he's a captain?" she joked. He didn't laugh "Okay it was because he reminded me on you."

"In what way?"

"You two were traveling alone, fighting some secret wars that only you two know. He's much more like you than you can imagine… well, except dancing and dating."

He looked back at her and scoffed, looking again at the wall.

"What?"

"You just assume that I don't…"

She raised an eyebrow "You don't?"

"_Dance." _He stressed the word, still not looking at her

"You do?" she asked, her interest picked

"Rose Tyler, I've been around more time that you can imagine. Of course I've had to _dance _at some point."

"Doesn't the universe implode of something if you… _dance_?"

He shrugged it, facing the wall "Well, I still got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."

She smiled wickedly and stood up. The Doctor didn't notice the action. She turned the little wheel of the radio to the right, making the music higher and raised her hand at him "Then show me, Doctor. How you _dance._"

He looked back at her and put his screwdriver inside his pocket. He walked cautiously towards her. Blimey, it had been so long. Did he actually remember how to dance? He took her hand and suddenly remember something. He grabbed the other one and observed them.

"Doctor that's not how it's done." She giggled

"You were hanging from a balloon."

"Yes, two minutes after you left, floating in the middle of the German attack with the Union Flag all over my chest. And I nearly fall, but Captain Jack picked me up. Then he showed me his spaceship and we danced on the top of an invisible ship at the Blitz." She teased

"Wow, you put in a new level the definition of Jeopardy-friendly. But you were hanging from a balloon, why don't you have even bruises?"

"He patched me up. Now can we dance?"

She let go and rested her rested her right hand on his leather shoulder. He grabbed his waist and approached her to him, his other hand firmly clasped with hers. They began swaying left and right at the rhythm of the music.

"You keep calling him Captain Jack."

She grinned, her tongue between her teeth "Well, that's because his name is Jack, and he's a captain."

"You and I know he's not a real captain, Rose." He assured with a small smile

"You know what I think? You're suffering a bit of… Captain's envy."

"I'm better Captain than he's going to be in all his life." He murmured in her ear. They were there, a little bubble isolated from anything else, the music surrounding them.

"Yeah? Maybe we can do a contest sometime." Jack's voice interrupted them and they let go of each other abruptly "People usually notice when they are being teleported, but not both of you, isn't it sweet? But do keep on, I don't want to interrupt anything."

"You're not interrupting." He answered quite flustered "We were just talking about dancing."

"It didn't look like talking." He replied

"It didn't feel like dancing." She added, her voice a bit trailed off

"So this is your ship." He ignored their two remarks "A Chula, isn't it?"

"The most dangerous one out there. Oh she's gorgeous."

He snapped his fingers and little yellow particles revolted around it.

"That's what healed me! Jack called them… nanobots? Nanogenes."

"Nanogenes. Look Rose, they are microscopic robots. They read your genetic code and restore three layers of skin. Simply as that. They can also restore internal damage and keep you alive if there's the enough amount of them working."

"Amazing…"

"And the one you 'borrowed', you said it was a Chula too, didn't you?"

"Yeah. I found it at a dunghill abandoned. The only thing that worked was the security system and the remote control. All else, broken. A little piece of rubbish that could be used to mess with the Time Agents. I'll try to restore the Nav-com back online, you can… keep on doing whatever you were doing."

"What I don't understand," Rose spoke up, ignoring the fuming Doctor beside her "is why you do all this. You risk your life dozens of times just for money?"

"Of course not, I'm not just a mercenary, and there are easier ways to obtain money. But you see, I wasn't a con man before. I've worked at the Time Agency most of my life and I adored my job, but one day I woke up and all my memories of the two years before had disappeared. Two years where I don't know what I did, who I met, what I thought. They stole two years of my life, and I want them back."

"So you're doing this for revenge?"

"Exactly. And if I turn them nuts, maybe they'll return them."

"Haven't you tried another system?"

"Nothing else worked and believe me, I tried. They don't even recognize they have taken them from me."

"Rose, your choice of companions never cease to amaze me. First Mickey the idiot, then Adam the stupid and now Jack the con man. Don't you know more male apes who'd like to follow you?"

"Don't pay it with me, mister." She narrowed her eyes

"Doctor you're right not believing in me, I wouldn't if I were you. Let's just go to the crashing so I can show you I've got nothing to do with it."

At the Chula spaceship fell a tense silence, all of them already wishing to arrive to their destination.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So here we are. The crash site, as protected as always."

"How do we sneak in? Should we distract them?" Rose wondered. They were two men, should she flirt with them so the Doctor could go in? She didn't find the idea very appealing

"Rosie, Rosie. I know these guys –I've worked with them, and I'm sorry but you're not Algy's type, I've noticed. Now if you excuse me…" he smiled and trotted towards the guards, already emanating an aura of Captain Flirt.

She whistled "Wow, he's open about with whom he… _dances_."

"Well, you know. He's a 51st century top boy. They're used to be surrounded of sorts of different people, so they're more flexible in who they _dance _with. So many planets, so little time, so many species…"

She looked at him with confusion at first, but then comprehension showed on her face.

"You mean… oh…"

"The human expansion." The Doctor remarked

"I see…"

Jack backed off and they noted something wasn't going right. The guard fell to the floor, and they could hear a pitch scream. His face began to deform, but before she could see anything more, her eyes were covered by the Doctor's hands. Some things weren't necessary to see.

The former official, then mask man just sat there, immobile staring at the space behind them.

"The invasion has changed." Said the Doctor after going closer with Rose "it now transmits by air."

"And what does it protect us?"

"Nothing does. We have to hurry… wait. Do you hear the singing?"

All of them stopped and concentrated. There was a faint voice coming from one of the quarters and it sounded like a… lullaby? They came closer and the voice –clearly of a woman now- was stronger.

They opened the door slightly and Rose saw a girl with black hair tied down in long pigtails staring back at them with fear. Beside her, a sleeping mask soldier seemed to be sleeping.

She stopped singing for a moment, but the Doctor mouthed her to keep on. She shook the handcuffs that retained her and he sneaked in, careful not to wake up the zombie.

When she was free of her restrains, both of them went outside the room.

"Nancy what are you doing here?" he asked worried

"I wanted to see the place where Jamie died so I sneaked in."

"Okay. Come with us, we're heading that way."

They stared walking north and soon they saw the cylinder they had been following with the TARDIS hours before. Jack hurried to the control panel and hushed.

"They've tried to open it by force."

"What did you expect? They think the secret weapon of the Germans has fallen from the sky."

"What is this thing?" Nancy asked amazed

Rose stood there wondering. What could she possibly tell her that she would believe and not scare her at the same time? She opted for the truth. She leaned down, resting her hands on her shoulders for reassurance.

"It's from another world."

He introduced the code, but as he went to validate it, the alarm set off, making a pitch sound.

"You don't even know the password?" the Doctor shouted

"I don't understand, it worked last time!"

She turned around and saw the mask men walking towards them "Doctor…!"

"What? Oh god. Jack go secure the gates. Nancy go with Rose and tell her where you sneaked in and repair the fence. Use this." He threw his screwdriver at her and she caught it.

They ran to the hole and kneeled down when they found it. She turned the screwdriver on, glad that she didn't have to find out where was the setting they needed and began putting together the wires.

"Who are you lot?" Nancy asked after a while

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me. I've seen metallic transportation of other worlds falling from the sky, people turning into masked zombies and a never-ending war. So tell me."

"We're… from the future. I am from 2006 and I'm now traveling with the leather guy."

"I don't believe you." She looked back at her "Don't misunderstand me. I believe you lot are from the future. My question is… _what future?_" she looked at the sky where German bombs were exploding.

"Oh Nancy, it won't end like this!" she assured her, even if she wasn't very sure where this thought had come from. Hidden knowledge? "Maybe now it seems the sky is going to fall, but turns will change soon, and you know? Don't tell the Doctor I told you, he gets a bit angry if I do spoilers, but we win, Nancy."

"You mean, you're not German?"

"No," she laughed "I'm from the good old London, honey. In this war, we win. Now let's go back there, maybe they need our help."

.-.-.-.-.-.

When the two girls arrived, the two men were like they left them before: discussing. Rose supressed a sight that threatened to escape from her lips as she watched hopelessly at them.

"Now you see, it's like I told you. No medical equipment, no weapons, nothing. It's empty."

"But it wasn't when it crashed. You see, there's one tiny little thing you didn't consider. Something that is present in the future ambulances but not the past ones. Rose care to guess?"

She looked at the empty transportation with a frown. A detail of the future… how could she possibly know how they treat people then? She was about to give up when the Doctor wobbled his fingers lightly. Something about his hand… wait.

"Nanogenes?" she guessed. The Doctor nodded.

"Nanogenes. The ship's full of 'em. But they crashed and bam! They got free. And then they find the child. A broken human already dead and they begin to heal him up, but the problem is they haven't seen a human before. So they did what they could, couldn't make a difference between the mask and the skull and they fused it up.

And they're still free, and they think they know how a human should look like. But they don't, do they? But they keep changing what they think it's wrong."

"Oh my god…" the captain whispered

"The nanogenes have given the power of a god to a kid desperate to find his mother, and he's gonna tear the world apart to do it."

"Muuumy…"

All the empty people were standing surrounding the Chula, crying for an unknown mummy, and not advancing at all. Jack shifted uncomfortable.

"Why are they not attacking?"

"They are soldiers, and are waiting for their captain."

"The child?"

"_Jamie._" Nancy said out loud. It was the first time she talked out loud since they've returned "He's not a thing, he's a child and has a name, which is Jamie."

"How do we stop'em?" Rose asked

"I have no idea."

Silence fell between them, the only thing disrupting their thoughts was the cries for mummy of the soldiers. Bombs were falling around them and at the sky, the moment when the bomb was going to explode on the spaceship approaching.

"It's my fault." Nancy began to cry, suffocated by the despair of her heart and the guilt that threatened to choke her. The empty army soon began to follow her, crying sorrowfully. Jamie, who had arrived to the front line moments ago began crying too.

The Doctor looked at them and then back at the crying girl. It wasn't possible…

"Nancy, how old are you?"

"Huh?"

"Twenty, twenty-one? Older than you seem, isn't it? How old were you six years ago, fourteen? Old enough to give birth. A mother alone in the late thirties and what you did? Pretend you were younger and hide it from everyone, even from him."

"Doctor." Jack warned "The bomb's about to fall."

"Get rid of it, I don't need it anymore."

"I can't do that! The Nav-con is back online, I can only teleport myself."

He looked him at the eye "Do what you have to."

He pressed a button on his teleporter and escaped, leaving Rose with a hurt expression in her face.

"Look at him Nancy. He's a scared child, and the only thing he can think about is his mummy. He would do anything for her and he won't stop asking, so, why don't you answer?"

The child made some hesitant steps forward until he came face to face with her. She crouched down and he asked with his sweet voice.

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes Jamie, oh god yes." She began crying again

"Are you my mummy?"

"He doesn't understand her." Rose muttered worriedly

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes, Jamie. I _am _your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I am so sorry…" she hugged him and a cloud of nanogenes whirled around them.

"Come on…" the Doctor urged "Recognise the superior information. She's his mother! You have the pattern now. C'mon just one good day. Just give me one good day!" The brightness of the nanogenes faded and he crouched down in front of Jamie. He took the mask with his both hands and pulled the mask up. He was relieved when it was removed easily and two green eyes stared confused at him.

"AHA!" he grabbed him from his underarms and twirled with him "Twenty years to pop music, you'll love it!"

The nanogenes lingered around them, and with a swing of his arms, he launched them forward to the people infected, returning to normal and staring around in confusion.

"Everyone lives, Rose! Just this one time everyone lives!"

It was his first adventure since the Time War where anyone had died somehow, and it felt refreshing.

Rose was ecstatic, but soon a more important matter nagged her mind "Doctor, the bomb!"

"It has been taken care of."

She couldn't believe what he replied when she saw the metallic mass raising its speed rushing to make contact with the floor, but when a blue beam stopped it, she could only grin wide.

"Inverse psychology. Works every time."

Jack himself was riding the bomb as if it was an alternative vehicle, and was smiling down at them.

"Doctor! The bomb has started the detonation. I'm keeping it in stasis, but it won't last long. I'm going to take it away from 'ere."

"Take care, captain."

He disappeared, but appeared again and gave Rose a cheeky grin "By the way, I loved that shirt."

"Thanks." She smiled back

And he disappeared again.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor was radiating happiness as he danced around the TARDIS control panel. Oh cute little useful intelligent nanogenes.

"Everyone lives Rose! Just once, everyone does! I should have more days like this. Now ask me, what do you want to do? Ride a unicorn? Walk on the moon? Find the end of the rainbow? Ask me anything, I'm on fire!"

"…What about Jack?"

He stopped and looked at her, a sour expression on his face "What about him?"

"He spoke like he was saying goodbye. What's going to happen to him?"

He avoided her intense gaze, but at the end he found himself muttering "The bomb was detonating…"

"Then let's go pick him up before it's too late." He made a grim face and she scolded "I'm having none of this, Doctor. Just once everyone lives, remember?"

.-.-.-.-.-.

Captain Jack Harkness was desperately consulting the bomb stasis and paled. 0% chance of survival, huh? Well, nothing could be really bad accompanied with a martini and an olive.

He took one sip of his drink –Ugh, too much vermouth- and thought about good memories, the ones that usually got linked with hyper vodka and people with less clothes than average. Sweet old days.

He glanced at the bomb and read its name. Schlechter Wolf. What did it mean? The Wolf part, he understood it, but the other one –which he was sure he couldn't even pronounce right- he didn't have the sightless.

A tune began playing from behind him. _Midnight serenade. _One moment, his music player wasn't on. He turned the chair around and saw a blue cabinet that seconds ago hadn't been there. He stood up and walked numb inside it. It was really bigger on the inside.

He saw Rose dancing – or what looked like dancing- with the Doctor, who was stumbling and missing his steps constantly.

"I don't understand, I used to know this things. Oh hey there, could you close the door? Your ship's about to blow up."

"Much bigger on the inside…" he exclaimed

"You'd better be." He turned around and settled the next coordinates

Rose stood by his side and grinned "He just means you may cut in. Hello." She said, her tongue between her teeth

"Hello." He replied with a soft look

The music changed and the sound of trumpets filled the room. They looked up to see the Doctor grinning.

_Well, I've roamed about this Earth_

_With just a suitcase in my hand_

"Oh I like this song better. Rose, I remembered I can dance!" and then he improvised some steps with grace he didn't have before. She grinned and joined him

_And I've met some bog-eyed Joe's_

_I've met the blessed, I've met the damned_

"Does the song talk about you, Doctor?" she teased

"Funny thing, I met the composer years ago and told me he wrote it thinking about me, even if I hadn't seen him before in my life."

_But of all the strange, strange creatures_

_In the air at sea on land_

_Oh my girl, my girl my precious girl_

_I love you, you understand._

At listening to the lyrics, she raised an eyebrow at him "A girl? You have a girlfriend?"

"No I don't." he stated, the tips of his ears becoming a little pink. He made her twirl to hide it. She laughed "I don't know what he was talking about, maybe the TARDIS? But, as I said before, I haven't met him yet when he met me, so who knows?"

_So reel me in, my precious girl_

_Come on, take me home_

_'Cause my body's tired of travelling_

_And my heart don't wish to roam._

"Mmm, I guess it fits the TARDIS… But how would he know she's alive?"

_Well you took me in, you stole my heart_

_I cannot roam no more_

_Because love, it stays within you_

_It does not wash up on a shore_

"I have no idea. That's time to you. A big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey… stuff."

"_Stuff?" _she giggled

_But a fighting man forgets each cut_

_Each knock, each bruise, each fall_

_But a fighting man cannot forget_

_Why his love don't roam no more_

"Isn't it exciting, though?" she continued "One day we're gonna bump into him and you'll know him because he knew you before."

"This is exactly the best part of a time machine." He laughed and they danced until the song finished, Jack forgotten at the entrance looking amused at them.

_My body's tired of travelling_

_And my heart don't wish to roam_

**Cheesy? Very cheesy? I'm sorry, I love this song and the first time I heard it I was like: wow, this totally fits the Doctor so I had to use it, right? **

**Don't forget to tell me if you liked it!**


	14. Something old, something new

**Ehm, it's 00:06, but it's not considered being late, is it? I just happened to forget to check up for mistakes, so I had to do it tonight. But I'll do anything for my lovely readers. Also, I'm sorry to tell you I'll have to abandon the routine a bit, because I have finals and all my time will be occupied with more and more scientific facts. I'll finish on the 26th of June.**

**So, for making it up, I'll post a special chapter today. It's a completely original story, and there are hidden some hints for major facts of the story. Enjoy.**

**Ch.11. Something old, something new.**

_"Hello, is somebody there?"_

_"It's nothing. It's just a wolf."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Doctor, I need to do some shopping in Earth."

He raised his head and hit the control panel with it, making him whimper with the sudden pain. He had been trying to fix the shield extrapolators and hadn't heard her coming. He sat up, carefully this time and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Shopping?"

"Yes. I've ran out of shampoo, and I'd also like to buy some other things."

"Which things?"

"Just _things_. Why are you making such a fuss?" He averted his gaze and muttered something "What."

"Because Jackie might hit me with a pan or slap me, something I'd like to avoid." The tips of his ears acquired a soft shade of pink and she giggled.

"You afraid of my dear neighbour, Doctor?"

He scoffed "Me, afraid of a mere human? Of course not. I'm The Doctor, The Oncoming Storm, a silly ape couldn't even…"

"Rose." Jack showed up, interrupted him "You have a phone call. She says she's _Jackie._" The Doctor paled and they both burst out laughing. He looked at both of them, and when he realized they were teasing him he was furious.

"Messing up with the designated driver isn't a good idea, you know. I could leave you wherever I feel pleased as a revenge."

She laughed and crouched down "C'mon. We don't necessarily have to land at the present. We can travel some years to the past when she doesn't know you yet. That's why we have a time machine, don't we?"

"We could use the travel to refill the shelves. We've ran out of almost everything edible."

He sighed and gave up. Standing up, he set the coordinates to Earth, some years to the past and grabbed the starting lever. He glanced at them warningly and pulled it down.

The three of them laughed as they bumped and were shaken, grabbing the banister to keep standing on their feet. The TARDIS landed with a soft thump and they grinned ecstatic.

"Blimey." Jack exclaimed "Your driving has worsen in this three months I've been travelling with you."

"Shut up, _Captain_ or I'll throw you to the nearest nebula."

Rose rolled her eyes. Boys and their usual bickering "Now could you please leave the testosterone behind and get going? We've got so many things to do."

She opened the door and a warm breeze caressed her skin. It was unusually warm for a winter at London, and the sun shone bright in a clear sky. She took her fluffy jacket off and threw it behind her, almost hitting the Doctor in the process. Yes, the soft jumper would do.

People were sitting on the fresh grass enjoying the good weather, and the entire city seemed to have slowed down. She considered the idea of telling the shopping off and enjoy the calm of the day, but she didn't know if she would be able to convince the Doctor to take her on a shopping day again.

The two men stepped outside behind her "Nice weather." Jack commented

"Here we are, London, 20th of January, 1999. Where do you want to start?" when he finished saying that, he saw a hint of blonde from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and froze; Rose –a younger version of her- was having a walk alone near them.

He grabbed the oldest Rose's arm "We have to go. Now."

"What's happening?" she asked alarmed, but the Doctor still pushed her away from the TARDIS almost painfully "Stop and tell me what's going on!"

He let her go "It was you. Not you but a younger you, the one that lived near here in 1999."

"Oh, really? And how was I?" she asked curious

"That's no joke Rose. If you bumped into you, if you suggested her- you in some way you would change your forthcoming actions, who knows what would happen in the future."

He rubbed his neck. How come they always got in trouble? It was an innocent shopping trip and there they were, about to cause a rip of the reality. Bugger, he really had bad luck.

He sighed and covered his eyes with his left palm "We have to go."

"No!" she shook his too tight hand off her "We have to do urgent shopping and it has taken me too much time to convince you to come. Moreover, London's a very big city, it's quite unlikely to meet me again."

He grabbed her shoulders and shook her lightly "I can't live this to chance, Rose! Time's very fragile and has to be treated with care if you don't want all the reality to fall apart."

"Are you implying I'm not careful enough?"

"Th-that's not…"

"Oh yes, you did. You always complain how silly us humans are, and I happen to be one silly ape too? Silly Rose who doesn't know how to be careful with events that could change the future. Well, let me tell you I've done quite great in this whole year and nothing has happened yet."

He looked at her and felt his anger build up "Oh yeah? How about that day you touched a Dalek, bringing it to life? Or that other time you brought someone on board who tried to change the future, putting the whole universe on danger?"

"Oh now everything's my fault?! Remember _you _are the one who put us in all those dangerous situations for your own enjoyment and to fulfil your sense of grandeur."

He clenched his jaw, his eyes clouded and his mind began racing. A tiny voice in his head begged him to stop before he said too much, but he ignored it.

"You want to know what I think? That maybe you aren't here for the shopping. Maybe you're here to regain your memories and you have used me and my time machine just to do it." He let her go forcibly "So go on! Look for your little you and ask her, then rip apart some realities in advance! Maybe this way you'll notice how wrong you are."

She glared at him hurt. His words had reached their objective and every insult had felt like a slap on her face. She looked up, trying to stop her tears and gritted her teeth, tense.

"You know?" she snapped "It hadn't cross my mind but now I might do as you say. Because as we all know, you always the cleverest one everywhere we land, aren't you Doctor?" and she left him standing there, his eyes dark and clenched fists.

He turned around and saw Jack looking at him smugly "What." He snapped

"Nothing."

"What was I supposed to say?" he shouted exasperated. He was very ticked off their behaviour "She takes for granted something we must protect. It's the duty that was left for me."

"I'm not telling you what you should do and what you shouldn't, but if you keep making her feel inferior I might try to steal her from you."

He went out the park in an opposite direction Rose had taken before, leaving him standing alone "What does that even mean?" He muttered and repressed a curse.

He opted to have a walk. He didn't want to admit he was upset about making Rose get mad at him but he definitely wasn't happy about it either. She had become an important part of his life in a year they'd been travelling together and he hadn't enjoyed when she had acted so careless about it.

What was he supposed to do?! He was the last of his kind, he had to do all the job of his fallen brothers! And meeting yourself was very, very dangerous; he had some experience about it.

And there was the fact that she had used him. She had betrayed his trust in her and led him without his consent where she wanted. She only cared for the memories she had lost, noting more than that.

But, actually, did it hurt more her betrayal or realizing she didn't care about him?

He sat down on a bench and sighed. All the humans were sitting on the grass or pacing around, all happy just because an accumulation of water in gaseous form wasn't hiding the sun behind.

"Why are you sad in a day like this?" a tiny voice asked behind him. He turned his head and saw a tiny Rose looking at him with big owlish eyes. Her hair was darker than the colour she had in the future. Her arms were crossed, and relaxing on the bench back, her head resting on them and tilted so she could look at him properly.

"Why do you assume I am sad?" he asked

"You look like you've lost something important for you and can't find it. Jackie puts this face when she can't remember where she put her wedding ring."

He returned his face forward "Doesn't your parents tell you not to talk with strangers?"

"I'm not a child, I'm almost 13! Moreover, we are surrounded by people. If you tried to do something to me I just need to scream."

"Fair point."

She sat down with him in an Indian style, cupping her face with her hands, her elbows resting on her legs. She looked at him curiously "So, what happened?"

He glanced at her. She wasn't that different from her present self, with or without memories. She still had this kindness and need to help people, even if she didn't know them. He chuckled without force, it was ironic the one who tried to comfort him was the one he'd had the fight with.

"I had a fight with my best mate. I shouted, she shouted, we both said bad things and she left."

"Why?"

"I tried warning her about something, but she didn't pay any attention at what I said. I also discovered she had been using me all this time for her own benefit."

"How long have you known each other?"

"A year and two months. We travel together."

She played with a loose strand of her blouse "How do you know?"

"I'm sorry?"

"How do you know she was fooling ya? I mean, a year is a really long time to keep up a façade. Did she admit it was all a lie?"

"No, she… looked-"

"Hurt? 'Course she was. You accused her without proof, and showed her that after all this time you don't trust her."

He looked down at his own hands. He really wanted to shout at her she wasn't being objective, but she really was. She was stating things clearly despite being only a child and made him think about it. Did he really listen to what she had said? No, he didn't. He had just wanted her to do as he said without complain, and that wasn't what friends were to.

He realized he had been a jerk without a reason, and she had all the right to blame him. He had hurt her in so many ways in a very little time. And what about now? She might not want to hear about him again and ask him to take her home. And he would do it, despite he would be imploring in his insides for her to stay. Because she deserved so much.

"What do I do now?" he asked, his voice weak at the sudden emotions.

"Apologize. Explain her why you reacted like this. Maybe she won't forgive you for a while, but if she has stayed by your side all this time she probably will."

He observed at the little human sitting beside him. Even if she was younger, she was still her, all pink and yellow "You're very intelligent for your age, you know."

She smiled, her tongue poking between her teeth "Daddy always tells me that. He says the Wolf family is intelligent and strong. Oh." She looked at the time on a fob clock hanging from a golden chain she was wearing around her neck "Speaking about him, he's waiting for me. I gotta go now. I hope to see you again, Doctor, so you can tell me how it went."

"You bet for it." He replied and watched how she left. Okay, it was time to find older Rose.

.-.-.-.-.-.

She was crying. She was trying desperately not to do so but she hadn't succeed until then. She dried her tears with the back of her hand furious. How dare he tell her all this things? Maybe she had overreacted, but he still didn't have the right to accuse her of something that was completely false.

She had stayed by his side in the merrier and the worst, but deep down he still didn't trust her completely. He was looking for a reason to shut her out of his personal bubble and he had just find the breaking point. The truth is that his words had hurt her like steel bullets, like she had been smacked with the implications of his speech.

Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to take her back to London. Did she really had to go back home? After all she had seen out there, she doubted she could really return to normal life, with mortgages and boring jobs as a shop girl.

But this wasn't the main reason she didn't want to go. She cared for the Doctor deeply. She didn't want him to be alone again, not after what had happened to his people. But now in what position was she to ask for something?

She paced around, her eyes misted with tears when she bumped into someone. She grabbed her arm instantly, trying to keep her from falling.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking…" her words died down when she saw who was before her. Big hazel eyes looked back at her. She swore mentally. The only thing the Doctor had asked her not to do and she ran into it. Just fantastic.

"You are me." The little girl stated

"Now what are you…?" she began, but at seeing the serious expression of her face she stopped "You know."

"Yes."

"How?"

"It's not the strangest thing that has happened to me. Daddy's from the future, so I'm used to it. I also saw you landing an hour ago. Your spaceship's really beautiful, but a bit tiny, isn't it?"

"Oh. It's bigger in the inside. But I really shouldn't be talking with… well, me. We could have a lot of problems."

She tilted her head "But there's no Reapers around even if you have touched me. I think we are going to be just okay."

"Reapers?"

"Timelines cleaners. They appear when a timeline's too wrong and erase it."

She looked at her younger self impressed "Oh. Your daddy taught you all this?"

"Yes! When he's able to come home from work he teaches me everything he can. He's a great daddy."

She smelled a scent that made her stomach rumble. Beside them, there was a chip shop. She looked down and saw her younger self looking at the recently made chips and chuckled "As we've seen we aren't having problems in our meeting, how about I invite you to some chips? In exchange, you don't ask me anything about the future."

"Deal." She replied almost instantly and ran towards the shopkeeper to make their order.

They sat down, one in front of the other and started devouring chips. They were faintly golden and salty enough. Older Rose picked up one and chewed it slowly, marvelling its taste.

"I still don't think it's a good idea to hang around together, you see. I travel with that man who knows a lot about time, and told me no to meet you. We even had a really big fight about it."

She swallowed the chips inside her mouth and had a sip of Coke "The Doctor?"

"Yes…" she looked to the bowl of chips, but suddenly raised her head "Wait. When did I say his name?"

"You didn't."

"Then how…"

"I met him before I found you." She grabbed another chip and ate it. Her older self went from astonished to furious and began muttering curses. That… _alien _telling her not to do something and he does just that, huh?

"He was pretty upset."

That made her stop insulting him "Why?"

"He regretted telling you all that things, and thought you would ask him to go home for it."

"I couldn't possibly leave him for this… oh this stupid, daft, dense alien!" she laughed and ate three more chips. Then she noticed the chain hanging on her neck and opened her mouth "The clock! You already have it!"

"Yep. I've had it in my hands since I have memory." She looked at it "Blimey!" she exclaimed "I promised daddy I would be at home an hour ago. I'm sorry, I gotta go."

"No worries. Go home, quick. And it was nice meeting myself." She grinned, and her younger self answered with a kind smile.

"Me too. I hope the time between us will pass as quick as possible." She opened the door of the shop but turned before leaving "Oh, and make it up with the Doctor. He's a bit dense, but he really cares about you.

"Will do." She muttered. Leaving the money for the chips on the table, she left looking for the Doctor.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Jack was having a walk at the busy streets of London. He wanted to give space to these two lovebirds to make it up, and he quite enjoyed being alone for a while. Both of them were so dense they didn't even realize their own feelings. He was quite the expert in matters of love and had seen it instantly.

The way they looked at each other, the way they hardly ever lost contact with the other… it was quite obvious.

Something tugged his jacked and he looked back, meeting a pair of whiskey eyes. She looked back at him and let him go.

"Too old." She muttered "I'm sorry, I had mistaken you for someone."

"Don't worry, you didn't bother me at all. You can go, sweetie."

"Thank you. Oh, and don't make them wait too much or they will worry."

She walked down the street, leaving him dumbfounded. No doubt Rose was indeed interesting, even in her early ages. He laughed quietly and went back to their spaceship.

.-.-.-.-.-.

She ran through the park, looking for a man with leather jacket and soft jumper. She undid her steps and found the TARDIS, standing alone on the green grass. She leaned on her surface and let her breathing go out with forced puffs. She had walked more than she had realized, and she had spent twenty full minutes running until she saw the park.

She sat down on the grass trying to regain her breath, her back making contact with the blue wooden surface and looked up at the sky.

"Rose?" the Doctor called her from her left. He was panting lightly

"Doctor…"

"No, let me." He handled her his hand and she got up, standing face to face "First of all, I am sorry I shouted at you. I know I hurt you and you have no idea how bad I'm feeling about it. I said all these things because I felt betrayed, even if I had no reason, and I wanted you to feel it too, but that isn't a justification to act like this, and I'll understand if you want to go home."

She placed a hand gently on her arm.

"Stop. I couldn't possibly leave you for a silly argument. I told you wouldn't get rid of me easily, and I would chain myself to the console if you try to shut me out." She grinned. He still looked a bit hesitant but she opened her arms in invitation. He embraced her and rested his forehead on the hole of her neck "I have to apologize too, though. I bumped with myself earlier. Literally."

He snapped his head up "What?"

"Don't worry, no reapers in sight."

He relaxed again and after a while he let her go a bit reticent. "Wait, I didn't actually tell you about the reapers, did I?"

"You couldn't. It was young Rose who told me about it." He looked regretful "I was so stubborn I didn't even let you talk. I'm so sorry."

"Hey." He caressed her cheek with his thumb "Forget about it. But how could younger you know about reapers?"

"My dad appears to be a time traveller and we're from the future. Or he is the only one, I don't really know. She actually saw us landing."

"Really? She didn't tell me."

"Yeah." She heard some quick steps coming closer and saw Jack running towards them "Jack!"

"Oh, I see everything's clear, then. I suppose we have to move that warning to another day, Doctor."

She looked at them puzzled, but the Doctor did his best to ignore it. Jack plastered a cheeky smile on his face. He huffed and went inside the TARDIS, followed by a very confused Rose and a teasing Captain. He settled the coordinates to the vortex and let her navigate.

"We actually didn't do any shopping." He stated

"I can always ask Jackie to do it. She would really like the visit, you know." She commented, playing absentminded with a black ball

"No. absolutely not."

She threw the ball to Jack, who captured it gracefully "I don't understand, what is so terrific about her?"

"She almost hit him with a pan the first time we landed in her living room. Oh, and she slapped him because we spent four months of Earth time without paying her a visit. She has him a bit crossed."

He laughed at him and threw the ball to the Doctor, who was trying to ignore the conversation as best as he could "Doctor, you have quite a go with the Tyler women."

"You tell me." He muttered under his breath and passed the ball to her

"Oi!" she exclaimed and threw the ball with strength to his head, taking him by surprise. For her amusement, he hit him at the head

"Actually, I did meet your younger self today, Rose. I may say you were quite the human even since then."

"Wait, all of us met me? I mean, we were heading in totally opposite directions, what are the odds?"

"Maybe it's just that you always happen to be at the correct place at the correct time." The Doctor commented, already playing with the knobs and the buttons of the console.

She let the subject drop, accepting the answer, but something tickled at the back of her head. She began feeling it not too long ago, but it put her on ward. Something told her nothing was as easy as they put it.

Something was coming.


	15. Boom Town

**I'm baaaaack! I'm sorry you had to wait so long for the update, but I'm a woman of promises. I said I'd update once I finished my exams (yesterday, btw) and here it is, new chappie.**

**We're getting close to the end of Nine and the first third of the story, and I hope you stick to it until the end. There was a part in this chapter that was really hard to write, so I hope you like it.**

**Ch. 12. Boom town**

_"Why are you helping me when you_ _have_ _to_ _put_ _your life at risk?"_

_"Because every one of us deserves another opportunity."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Jackie Tyler was watching the telly when the phone rang. She picked it up, reminding herself to call her friend Lola later, as she had to tell her how dear Shareen had found a new boyfriend.

"Hullo?" she muttered absentminded, pouring down nice and hot tea down a cuppa

"Hi, Jackie!" replied a cheerful voice at the other side of the call

"Rose! How are you hon? Where and, dare I say, when are you? I swear to god my head spins every time I try to make sense of all this. Is that bloody alien behaving?"

She heard her crackle "Actually, we're on Earth, the present. Cardiff, to be specific."

"Cardiff? And why didn't you come to London? Is the Doctor taking you away from me on purpose?"

She chuckled "No, no. Actually, it was his idea to call you. We've landed here because we needed fuelling. You see, there is a crack in time and space here, and the TARDIS uses the energy that emits to work."

"How much time will you stay?"

She heard her asking somebody else, and a deep voice answered "A full day." She repeated "So I was thinking if you could come here instead of us going and spend the day together."

"I can't, honey. Gotta meet with the girls, and Cardiff's too far away. As soon as I reach there you'll have to go."

Rose sighed "Pity. Then I'll make the Doctor take us to your flat, but I don't assure you when we're going to land, as his driving skills…"

"OI! My driving skills are perfect." The Doctor shouted from behind

"You once got the wrong country _and _year."

"But you met Charles Dickens!" he cried

She felt a silly argument coming, so she caught her attention again "Well, I don't care when you come as soon as you do it. And if he protests, tell me and I'll give 'im one of my Jackie slaps."

She laughed but stopped when someone knocked on the TARDIS door "I gotta leave you now, but I assure you we'll keep in touch."

"Take care!"

"You too. Love you." She hung up and looked at the now open door. Jack was talking to someone outside.

"Who the hell are you?" where she was she couldn't hear the answer, so she walked closer "Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever you selling' we're not buying."

"Get out of the way!" wait, that voice…

Mickey Smith made his way inside the TARDIS, surprising her. The Doctor, who was up a ladder looked down at him in recognition.

"Here come's trouble. How's it going Ricky boy?"

"Mickey!" she hurried and hugged him "What are you doing here?"

"Aw sweet. Look at this two. How come I never get any of that?" Jack commented behind the console.

"Buy me a drink first." The Doctor joked still upstairs

"Such a hard work."

"But worth it." He grinned

He observed the conversation take place and sighed "I am staying with a mate for a short holiday and was having a walk when I saw the police box parked. But I didn't expect Captain Cheesy to open the door."

"In the 21st century the word cheesy is good or bad?"

"Bad."

"But bad is good, am I right?" He smiled mischievously "At least I'm not Mickey mouse."

"Stop you two." She raised her voice

"But it was a surprise to see you here. Why did you come to Cardiff of all places?"

She began explaining "We just stopped to refuel. You see, Cardiff's on top of a rift of time, it's invisible but different points of time and space are linked there."

The Doctor jumped off the ladder "It was dangerous, but in 1869 one of the bravest girls healed it."

"By Gwyneth, who bravely fought against the Gelsh, an alien race planning to invade Earth and closed it." She grinned, mimicking with her hands the action of closing it

Jack rounded the console "But closing the rift always leaves a scar and it's emitting energy since then, inoffensive for the human race…"

"But perfect for the TARDIS." The Doctor quipped "Parked here for a couple of days, right on top of the scar and…"

"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation…"

"And when the TARDIS' full, up we go..!" she raised her voice in emotion

"Into time!"

"And space!" they high-fived each other and laughing

Mickey, at the other hand, didn't look too amused "Look at you. You lot think you're very clever, don't you?"

"Yes." the Doctor grinned

"Yes." Rose smiled with her tongue between her teeth

"Yep." Jack said last and hit playfully Mickey's face and he tried to shrug it off with his hand.

"C'mon, now we're all here, why don't we take a walk while we wait?"

They began walking away, but before closing the door, Rose saw a really large striped scarf hanging on the coral beside the door. _What an odd scarf _she thought, but the cold wind coming from the outside made her shiver violently.

She grabbed it and began twirling it around her neck, trying avoid the ends touching the floor. It was warm and soft against her skin, and she instantly grew a liking on that complement. Yep, she was keeping it.

She stepped out the ship and saw the Doctor eyeing the scarf in slight surprise "Is something the matter?" she asked confused

"No." he shrugged it off "Shall we?"

They headed to the busy streets of Cardiff chatting and laughing. She told Mickey about their adventures since they left the Slitheen accident, all the planets they had seen and the different kinds of aliens they've met.

"So you've telling me you found your house? This is great!" he commented, taking a sip of his drink. They had stopped in a restaurant near the coast to have something to eat, and they had kept explaining him their tales.

"Yep, and it seems I had a kind of foster mother, Jackie Tyler, who looked after me. Hey, you should go meet her!"

The Doctor made a face "I wouldn't do it if I were you, mate. She may end up slapping you for no reason."

"She only does that for you, Doctor." She smiled sweetly at him and all of them laughed

Mickey then explained what had happened after what happened in their last visit. He said Harriet Jones had been an essential piece of the reconstruction of London, and now she was a candidate for becoming Prime Minister.

Then, Rose explained him all their adventures. How they had been imprisoned in the medieval equivalent of a planet named Kuriyiruk II because the Doctor had insulted the oligarchy in front of the sages who ruled the planet; or the one when they rode a seal with big ears and a blue trunk at the frozen seas of Laiea.

The elderly couple sitting on their right left, scandalized at the odd stories the blonde woman was explaining. The man had left a newspaper neatly folded on the table, and the Doctor eyed it with curiosity. It wouldn't hurt to take a pick, would it?

He unfolded it and caught his breath when he saw what was at the front page "And we were having such a good day…" he sighed and turned the paper around so they could see it with their own eyes.

In bold letters, the main headline was 'New Mayor, New Cardiff." And the picture of someone they knew quite well was under it.

"Who's this?" Jack asked, confused

"Margaret Blaine, well, a Slitheen with the skin of Margaret Blaine." She said awestruck "She was supposed to die at the explosion in 10th Downing Street, how…?"

"I guess we'll have to find out." The Doctor said and stood up, leaving some notes on the table to pay their dinner.

When they arrived at the hall of Cardiff's city hall, they tried to set up their next steps before acting.

"Okay," Jack began "I've checked the building and it has three different escaping routes, plus the common window flee. Doctor, cover the principal hallway, Rose and I will be at the front and the back exits. Mickey, be under the window if she tries that way. All settled?"

"I think you forgot who's in charge here." the Doctor retorted

"Oh, of course. What do you command, sir?" he answered straight-forwardly

He scratched his jaw pensive "Actually, do as he said. It was a good plan." He grinned

.-.-.-.-.-.

A knock on the door brought Blon out of her daydreaming. She was still affected by that chat she had with the ape at the bathroom, and felt disgusted with herself. When had she become that weak against other races? It was a game of bit or be bitten, and she had to avenge her fallen brothers.

When had she become so… so _human? _Her stomach rumbled in discomfort and she snorted. It sure wasn't for the flatulencies.

The person outside knocked again and she grunted him to come inside. Her secretary stood stoically outside, a black folder and a pen in his hands.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Mrs. Blaine, but you have a visit. He chose to announce herself as the Doctor." She paled on her seat. The secretary stayed professionally expressionless "I tried to tell him you were in no disposition of receiving anyone, but he insisted and… Mrs. Blaine? What…?"

The Doctor heard some noise inside the room, and when the secretary came out, his professional mask abandoned by a mix of horror and uncertainly he knew.

"She has jumped through the window, hasn't she?" he nodded numbly and the Time lord smirked. He grabbed their speaking device and said "Route four, everyone. Mickey, do you see her?" it reproduced some muffled sounds, and then muttered curses. He sighed "Okay, everyone go help Mickey the idiot. I'll be there in a tick." He grinned at the man in front of him "Don't worry, I'll go fetch her myself. Have a nice day."

The secretary stood speechless, looking at the leather-wearing man go where he had come. He was going to take the day off from work. Or maybe a whole week.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Blon panted in front of the alien and his annoying crew. He had reversed her teleporter device four times now, and the situation was now far beyond stupidity "Give me a break, will ya?" she puffed "What have I even done to you?"

"You tried to destroy our planet with us still on it." The blonde girl answered

_Oh. _"Apart from that."

"Why don't we have this conversation inside? I've got so much to ask you, Slitheen Blon." The Doctor beamed and Jack tugged her to follow them

So she complied, as her teleporter was useless anyway. She was angry. More than that, she was furious. They were chatting as if nothing had happened and there she was, a _prisoner _of these crazy group without chances of fleeing.

It was infuriating.

They arrived at her office and closed the door. No one was in sight, neither her annoying secretary. Why did she pay him that lot of money if he didn't work when necessary? Bunch of incompetents.

"Well, here we are, Blon. And that's the question. Why are you still here?"

The handsome man behind her let her go and she caressed her swollen wrist "Before the bomb fell at 10 Downing street… everything was chaos. All my brothers and sisters running around, trying to find a way of escaping. Moments before the explosion I remembered I had the teleporter, so I used it. And that's why I'm still alive."

"So you left them at their luck." Rose stated, sitting on the Mayor's table

"I had no choice! The teleporter has imprinted my genetic signature, I couldn't take anyone with me."

The Doctor wandered around the room "But why didn't you leave? You stayed here, even became the mayor of a city, why is that so?"

"I… grew a liking on this stupid species. I wanted to make them better, you see?"

"Installing a nuclear power plant on the top of one of the most powerful rifts of the universe? I don't think so. This planet, the one you tried to destroy before, the one who had ended with your family, and now you become the benevolent angel of peace? Don't play daft with me. You're alone and not powerful enough to continue with the plan so why didn't you escape…?" Blon shifted uncomfortable under his gaze "Unless… you can't escape, can you?"

Jack laughed triumphantly as he raised the model of the nuclear plant "Look at what we have here." he turned it around, showing the metallic base "A tribophysical waveform macro-kinetic extrapolator! Oh, this is gorgeous." He caressed tenderly the surface

"I was planning to use it as an escaping plan. You see, this nuclear plant have some tiny design flaws, and all of them together could lead to a tiny nuclear meltdown."

"But this kind of constructions are severely supervised. Someone should have discovered these flaws."

"Oh, they did. But let's say they didn't have time to tell anyone else." She smirked "They were quite delicious."

"So you were planning that meltdown, then what?" Rose snapped disgusted

"Hopefully, the explosion caused by it would open the Rift and destroy this planet, if I haven't miscalculated."

"So you were planning a vengeance? You'll die to of the explosion!"

He walked towards her "You see Rose, she wouldn't. Then is when it comes in use that extrapolator. To put it simple, is like a pan-dimensional… surfboard with an exterior shield surrounding the rider."

"Exactly." Her eyes glinted "I would use the explosion as a way of escaping this bloody planet _and _as a vengeance. Isn't it brilliant?"

The Doctor turned around and was about to talk when he noticed the huge pamphlet adorning the room. He stopped mid-tracks, unable to believe it himself.

"How did you choose the name of the plant?" he asked wary

She turned confused "What, Blaidd Drwg? It's Welsh, the other bloody language they speak here. It sort of… came to me one day and I liked it. I must have heard it somewhere."

Rose stood up "Why, is something the matter?"

"Yes Rose. How much time have we've been travelling together, a year? More than that? And everywhere we went, there was a tiny similarity, two words that kept appearing and appearing subtly. Bad Wolf. That's what it means."

She frowned in recognition "I've heard it before. Wait." She rummaged inside the pockets of her blue jacket, the one she was wearing in their first adventure, and took out a pamphlet. There, in bold letters, was announced a band, The Bad Wolf.

There it was again. These two words. He took carefully the paper between her fingers and looked at it. It seemed a normal add, yet these words… they were scattered in time and space, only seen by the corner of their eyes, only overheard. Leading them to their destination. It could always be a coincidence, but he had learned a long time ago something about coincidences:

The universe is rarely so lazy.

He frowned, folding the poster, but when he looked up he saw the concerned expression of his companion. She knew as much as he that something wasn't right, and seeing him thinking thoughtfully about it only confirmed her worries.

Making his decision, he kept the pamphlet inside her pocket and his suspicion at the back of his head to analyse it later. It was no use to worry her unnecessarily "Or maybe it's just a coincidence. These days these… supernatural things are pretty popular."

"Is it?" she frowned

"Wait for a couple of years and you'll see." He shivered at the 'vampire invasion' that was about to come. Sparkly vampires, really? Bram Stoker would cry if he knew. Well, he was one of the few human who knew what a real vampire looked like, mind you. But still.

"Anyway. You were planning to destroy a whole planet and I can't allow you do it. If the only thing you want is to escape, I can take you to the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius myself."

She raised her head shocked "You can't do that! The Slitheen family are convicted criminals there. If you take me they'll kill me."

He grinned deadly "That's not my problem."

Jack walked beside him the metallic device still on his hands "Doctor, I've scanned this extrapolator and they said this could reduce the time to refuel the TARDIS in half, if not more. We could part tonight instead of staying here since tomorrow."

"Really?" he made his own scan with the sonic and nodded at the results "Let's go to the TARDIS and install it. Blon, if you may follow us…" they headed outside, and if they had looked back, they had seen her sneer sinisterly. It wasn't what she had planned first, but it didn't matter. Everything was turning as she wanted.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose was having a walk with Mickey. Jack had stayed at the TARDIS, installing the whatsit at her stream so it could enhance her refill speed. They had proceeded to explain the main process with only technical words that no one born before the 40th century would understand, but they didn't realize.

She had grown accustomed to their tech babbling, becoming part of their normal life. Well, that didn't imply she understood a thing they said.

The Doctor strangely had gone out with the Slitheen for dinner. _A petition of a dead fellow, my ass _she thought grumpily. She didn't trust Blon, even if she was now defenceless, and she didn't feel amused when the Doctor accepted to go on a _date _with her. Not because of the date. It was her instinct. Not jealousy. Of course not.

When they arrived to the port, Mickey sat down on a cold step, looking at the stars pensive. She eyed him and sat beside him, a mixture of amusement and confusion plastered on her face.

"Are you happy up there?" he asked plainly

"Huh? In the TARDIS?" he nodded "Yeah." She sighed, remembering happily all her adventures by the Doctor's side "I mean, he lets me see everything I could've dreamt of… everything is so beautiful and _alien _up there… it makes you realize how tiny we are compared to the vast universe." She smiled "And I haven't even seen a quarter of it!"

He didn't share her joy "But you also face dangers there, you said it yourself. And I've got the feeling the Doctor is almost always the main reason of them."

She dropped her gaze to look directly at his eyes "I don't catch where you want to go with this."

"I'm seeing a girl." He blurted out

"Oh, really?" she exclaimed, happy for him but really confused "Since when?"

"July."

"My, my, that's really good!" she grinned, but he didn't respond "Then what's the problem?"

"The problem is that I can't stop waiting for you. You know, I lied before. We didn't meet here by chance. I am in this website of… Doctor fanatics. They know how he and his ship looks like, and every time they see one of them they post it online. Someone posted the TARDIS where you've landed, and I booked the ticket as fast as I could."

"But why didn't you tell me before? You could just have rang me and we'd come here."

He moved his hands exasperated "But you don't do it with your own initiative. You keep up there with the Doctor, forgetting the people that are waiting for you down here. Forgetting I even exist."

She clenched her fists at the attacks her friend was making "Mickey, that's not true and you know it."

"Really? Being waiting for a call for half a year from a friend, being left alone behind, looking for any signs of a blue police box in any corner of any street. That's what is like your new self?"

She glared at him "What are you implying?"

"Being with the Doctor is not real life, and you would know it if you remembered who you were before disappearing. He may be dazzling now, but remember he's an alien and you're only a _human_. He may get bored of you and dump you on the nearest planet, who knows which one, and you'll be left alone. You should stay here, where there are people who love you."

She stood up, grabbing forcefully her purse "I'm going." She began walking away when he grabbed her wrist. She shrugged it off "Don't touch me, Mickey. The man you were blaming is my best friend, the one who took care of me when I most needed it and the one who didn't allow me to get lost. I trust him with my life and every time you insult him you insult me."

She continued her way, assuring the scarf around her as she did so. She didn't turn back; she felt if she did it she would go and slap him. She knew she had hurt him for not getting in contact with him for almost a year, but it wasn't an excuse to treat her this way.

"Wait Rose!" she didn't stop "I didn't mean it I just…"

She paused but didn't turn back "What."

"I just thought we had something. Then you disappeared and I just…" he swallowed "I looked for you constantly, and even if I found you eventually I can't help feeling the same way. Even if I like it or not, I will always wait for you."

She turned around with tears on her eyes "I'm sorry Mickey. I know I've hurt you but I'm not that Rose now. I'm not that waiter who worked nearby your university and chatted with you when she had a break. I don't know if it's because of my memory loss, but what I'm living now… I crave this adventures."

Just as these words parted from her lips, the floor began shaking violently and they were nearly thrown to the floor. A column of light streamed from the middle of the city and illuminated the night sky of Cardiff. She noticed the TARDIS was in that direction and paled.

"We have to go." She began running, but he didn't follow. She looked back at him "Please, Mickey. Come with me."

They rushed to the source of the light, and she watched in horror as they came closer that the blue police box was indeed in the middle of the explosion of light. She legged the space between them and the door awestruck. The column seemed what had surrounded Gwyneth when opening the rift, and if her guesses were right…

She stepped inside, Mickey following her cautiously. At the console room she saw Jack rushing around the controls and the extrapolator, touching wires and levers.

"Jack!" she yelled

"Rose! Is the Doctor with you? I need help!"

"I'm here." he replied behind them. He made his way to the console and looked alarmed at the extrapolator "What the hell is happening?!"

"It's the rift!" Jack yelled "It was all fine but then this thing beeps and the TARDIS begins to implode. The extrapolator is taking the energy from the Rift to open it."

He turned and glared at Blon, who was just smirking at the fuming console "It was your plan all along, wasn't it? To distract me, let me have pity of you and then let the others do the dirty job. This extrapolator was not hidden enough –someone with sufficiently advanced technology could have detected it and activated it, locking on the nearest alien power source to tear open the Rift and escape from here."

She laughed and suddenly grabbed Rose's neck with her Slitheen claw, choking her "Very well, Doctor. You guessed right, but I'm sorry to say it's too late already. Now put the extrapolator on the floor and let me go or I kill her." She gripped her tightly and her breath hitched.

The Doctor complied and dropped the metallic object down. She jumped up, her hand still around her neck and crackled "Don't worry kid. As far as we're out of here I'm getting rid of you."

She looked at the Doctor in horror and he returned a look of his own. She felt useless, being the pawn that would make her able to escape victorious. She struggled, but it was no use, as her hand kept steady.

The TARDIS rumbled again, flames bursting out of the panel. Suddenly, a gate on the console burst open and a golden light could be seen inside it.

"DON'T LOOK INSIDE!" The Doctor yelled. She averted her gaze but it was too late. A flick of light went inside her and warmed her, an unknown melodious language whispered inside her head. She snapped out of her bewilderment as she noted the hand around her neck loosened.

"So beautiful…" Blon whispered, her eyes caught by the warm energy. She smiled sincerely for the first time and looked back at the Doctor "Thank you." Then the body of Blon the Slitheen disappeared, only leaving a green egg behind her.

Rose fell to the floor as her grip disappeared and she choked on the floor. The Doctor rushed by his side, closed the console and kneeled down where she was, looking at her eyes inspecting if there was vortex energy inside her. Not finding any trails, he caressed her back as he inspected the bruised that were already forming for the alien's claw.

"Are you ok?" he asked

"Yes." She managed to say, but her voice was raspy "But what was this light?"

"As you know, the TARDIS is alive and has some telepathic abilities. When the Rift began taking apart the console, her core was exposed. It's the most powerful part of the ship, and it represents her soul. It's believed between Time Lords to make hidden wishes come true."

"But why an egg?" she pondered, looking at the green oval object behind her

"Maybe all she wanted was a second chance, to rewrite all she had done and start again. The TARDIS may have sensed this and gave her that: a new beginning. She won't remember anything, and now what she does from now on it's her own decision."

"We should take her to Raxacoricofallapatorius, then." Jack nodded from behind the Doctor's back "I'm going to get something for that nasty bruises, wait a mo."

The Doctor and Rose stayed alone on the recovering Console room. He was carefully treating her raw throat with his screwdriver, leaving a ticklish sensation everywhere the sonic waves touched her skin.

When he finished, he helped her stand up and let her sit on the captain's chair, leaving to him the task of setting the coordinates of their next destination on the navigator system.

He suddenly raised his head and looked around, becoming aware of something "Where's Mickey?"

"He left after all the 'heart of the TARDIS' thing." She answered plainly, but he detected the hidden sadness behind it

"Should we wait for him?"

"No." she reclined her back on the chair and made herself comfortable "He deserves a second chance too."

And said that, the TARDIS vanished once again from Earth. But even this way, she wouldn't be able to leave behind the words whispered in her mind moments before, when everything was too bright and too warm.

It said 'Not yet'.


	16. Jump

**Sorry for the bit of delay -I was staying at a friend's house and totally forgot about updating. Well, this is a totally original chapter based on adventures not shown in the series. There will be another one like this before Gamestation so I hope you llike it!**

**Ch. 13. Jump**

_"__A Little spark made you combust, and now you crave for it."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor noticed Rose wasn't as cheery as she used to be. Of course she laughed and cried of happiness when they were on an adventure, but when she thought no one was looking she made such an upset face that even he'd noticed.

Something had happened when they had been in Cardiff, and he wasn't sure what exactly. Had he been rude to someone again? To her? He didn't remember anything of sorts. The purple bruises left by Blon were already away, and her voice sounded the same as always, so it wasn't a physical pain.

Then what was it?

Even if he didn't know why, he felt responsible to cheer his companion up. She would lose the fantastic things out there if she kept sulking that way. He was her friend, and he so wanted to erase the slight pain her eyes held.

So he thought what he could do. Make her tea? Nah, he had done it before and it didn't work. Even the visit to the leisure planet hadn't raised her mood.

Pay a visit to Jackie? It was long ago they made their last appearance to the Powell State, and he was sure she missed her neighbor, but would it really solve it all? Maybe she thought he was kicking her away, when was the opposite.

He placed the thought at the back of the list as the final option. If he needed it he'd do it, but he didn't want to risk one of Jackie's slaps directed to his face because she thought he didn't take care of Rose.

He winced. That woman sure was scary.

So he had the travel option. Where could he take her? He discarded leisure planets and potentially dangerous landings. Something with a special particularity that could make her happy…

He remembered one planet where he'd landed by accident and grinned. Oh, that sure was a special location. So he settled the coordinates down his beautiful time machine and called for them to come to the console room.

Rose placed down the book she was reading when she heard the Doctor calling them. She smacked her cheeks lightly with her hands. What was wrong with her? She still couldn't shrug away the guilt of hurting Mikey so badly at Cardiff.

He had looked at her so heartbroken… She was afraid she would see this face again on someone she loved, and that's why she was postponing the trip to Powell State. Her heart would broke if she saw Jackie like this.

Mickey, despite being rash doing it, had brought to the surface her inner fears. What would happen if she became a burden for the Doctor? Would he walk away? She shook her head, convincing herself he was her friend, and he wouldn't do that.

But she realized she didn't know much about him. In more than a year they'd travelled together, she hadn't learn much about his past. Not that it mattered much, but still he distrustfully hid it behind a mask of nonchalantly and a mad grin.

It didn't help for her bad mood the awkward sensation behind her mind, pinching her slightly, giving her a warning. Something was going to come soon, and she still didn't know what it was. Hell, she didn't know if she was just paranoiac!

She sighed and stood up, not wanting to worry him with her long absence. She put on a cheerful smile and walked out her room, looking for the Time Lord. Two hands grabbed her shoulders and she squealed, looking behind her.

"Jack!" she put a hand on her racing heart "You scared me here, mate!"

"Sorry, sorry." He chucked "I've come to pick you up. The Doctor had called us."

She smiled "I know, I was just going to the console room. Where were you?"

"Oh, just here and there. Exploring the TARDIS, mostly." They began their calm pace to where the Time lord was waiting for them "I still find new rooms after five months staying here."

"She's just incredible, isn't she?" she caressed the soft walls and the ship purred "She keeps changing at her will, it's amazing. It's like she could understand our needs better than us."

The walk to the console room was silent, and all the way she noted his eyes on her. She knew he knew something was wrong –Jack was very perceptive with the people around him- and also that she had noticed how he was looking at her, but chose not to say a thing about it. He would wait until she was ready, and she was grateful for that.

When they arrived, the Doctor was already dancing around the panels, switching buttons and pulling levels. Some outsider could say he was doing random movements, but all of it was part of a very complex choreography that even after almost one year and a half together she hadn't grown tired to watch it.

He chose that moment to raise his head, and his eyes caught the amused look of his companion. He grinned.

"Finally! If you had taken longer I would have thought my new experiment in Bathroom 3 had swallowed you."

"What do you…?" she cringed her noise "You know what, I don't wanna know."

He ignored her disgust and kept on with the coordinates "I have to buy an essential component of our dear TARDIS. You see, this transponder wave extrapolator is very rare, and only a few planets have it. The one we're using now is in good shape, but with a refill I'd be reassured." He raised his gaze and wiggled his eyebrows "You know, they are difficult to find if you are floating in the vortex without course."

"So we've got to go to this place to buy this transponder thingy-ator, isn't it right?" she grinned "What are we waiting for?"

"That's the spirit, Rose Tyler! Now grab on something, we're leaving!"

And so it began the bumpy ride that would make rodeo cowboys dizzy. Her laugh escalated with the giddy sensation of her stomach, grabbing the metallic railing as she tried not to fall.

The TARDIS came to a halt as she landed at their destination, and the lights dimmed. Taking his cue, the Doctor switched off some settings on the console and walked ahead the door, but stopped his hand at the doorknob.

"Before we go, I have to tell you something. You see, this planet has a special composition of its land, made mostly by polycarbonate and protein macromolecules laced in one structure very resistant of forces of compression so whe-"

"Doctor, in English please." She stopped him before he would babble more science-y facts.

"Mmm… let's say they don't walk here, they bounce."

Jack raised an eyebrow "Bounce? I don't know any planet that would make you _bounce._"

"You don't believe me?" he stared at him faking hurt "Go ahead then and "walk", Captain of the year."

He accepted the challenge and opened the door. Outside, boring dark land and a few trees regarded them. Smiling cheekily, he made one step, but his foot sank on the ground. Before he could think of something, his foot was bounced back with unexpected force and he fell on his ass on the TARDIS floor.

Laughing took him out of his stupor to see his two companions almost crying because of his expression. He huffed and stood up, patting his jacket to take off the dust.

"What was that, space-boy? Did the planet reject you?" he asked between laughs

He began muttering curses under his breath, only raising their amusement. She had to wipe off some stray tears and calmed herself. God, she wished she had the camera with her.

The Doctor stood at the edge of the room and jumped outside, bouncing up and down with the most serious expression he could master. He raised an eyebrow "What are you waiting for?"

Rose gathered some strength and jumped outside. She felt how her body sank before raising with force, floating in the air for a second. She laughed her lungs out, getting used to the sensation and did a flip, landing on her butt on the soft land before being thrown up again.

Jack watched her amused inside the cabin when he caught the smug look the Doctor was throwing him. With a soft growl, he was the last to jump outside, trying to maintain his cool in front of the lady.

"Now we're all outside, let's go to the town. It's…" when he landed, he flexed his knees and propelled himself, reaching more height. When he landed again, he flexed his knees again, this time reducing his landing force "this way. Quickly, before the sun sets."

They began to jump and hop forward, all of them trying not to fall in a bad posture. All the trip towards the city Rose was laughing heavily, the soft falls leaving her breathless but so much eager for more.

"You're pretty good doing jumping tricks, Rosie."

"Yeah." She said between pants "Jackie told me I did gymnastics when I was little, so I suppose my body still remembers doing it." And then she jumped with force and made some twirls in the air "It's very fun once you get the trick."

Jack gave her an amused smile "I can see that."

The Doctor hid a smile ahead of them. His plan was working perfectly. What could go…? No, he didn't want to jinx the day finishing that sentence.

But knowing his luck…

Nope. Bad Doctor. Don't.

They arrived at the town in an amazing short period of time. Tall buildings surrounded them, and the inhabitants were jumping around them as if it was the most normal thing around.

Rose noted there was some people on the floor –not bouncing– at some kind of street market. She looked closely, and saw that the little shops and all the buildings around them had metal railings attached to them, and people took their grip before reducing their bouncing.

"Meet the Floians, the only inhabitants of this part of the Floiakitei planet. Because of the special properties of the land and flora, a lot of species extinguished, but they adapted their bodies in a way they not only could survive, but they formed part of the land as well."

"What do they eat?" Jack asked

"They do photosynthesis, but in order to live they need a high concentration of carbohydrates they obtain from the floor, and that's why they wouldn't be able to live anywhere else than here."

She observed the dark merry-go-round people around them shopping, and the ones on the floor hand their feet somehow fused to the ground "That's how they eat from the floor?" he pointed their feet

He smiled "Exactly, but it also gives them the ability to stay still on the floor."

"I see…"

Many Floians shouted around them, trying to catch attention to possible customers. In their tables, really strange artefacts could be seen, picking up her curiosity. What could that black banana be? And the little cage?

She was about to ask when the Doctor spoke up "Well, I have to look for the Transponder communicator. You can look around while I'm on it, if you want. I'll be here in a tick."

Rose hurried to the nearest shop, but when he was about to live, Jack grabbed his wrist. That action made them bounce wildly with no coordination. He grabbed onto one rail to stop them before one of them got hurt.

"What the heck was that for, Captain?" he narrowed his eyes

"… Wasn't it a transponder wave extrapolator?"

"What?" he asked confused. Jack smirked

"What you needed to buy. Wasn't it a transponder wave extrapolator, instead of a transponder communicator?"

"Yeah, that's what I said." He blurted out

Jack let go of his wrist and chuckled. He took impulse to jump and in the air he looked back "And we both know that the _transponder wave extrapolator _isn't a TARDIS component. It doesn't even exist."

The Doctor stood awestruck at the bouncing man. After muttering something that totally sounded like 'cheeky bastard', he decided it was time to find something to do. After all, he had a transponder stimulator to find.

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Rose you're being irrational!" the Doctor exclaimed, toying with his sonic

"Oh I am… Care to explain me in which point of my previous statement was I being irrational?" she tapped with her foot the dirty floor, her patience growing thinner and thinner.

"How was I supposed to know the commerce of transponder ray rotator had been prohibited? Really, these things are inoffensive, what a stupid law to make." He tapped the iron bars of the window. Still as solid as the beginning.

Jack raised his head from the simple bed that decorated the cell "I still don't understand how we got involved in the transponder calibrator issue, to begin with."

"I wasn't going to spend my time at jail alone, having you two here. And could you stand up? God knows how many undiscovered microorganisms does this dirty rug posing as a mattress have."

"I've been in worse places, and sometimes with more people. I don't know how, we always ended naked and…"

The Doctor threw him a glance that said 'Shut it before I make you', and the Captain complied, chuckling lightly. Rose looked at him, her face between horrid curiosity and disgust. Jack had really had a lively life.

"Anyway," she spoke up "what was about all the fuss for the transponder whatsit-ator? Why is it illegal?"

He dropped his hand, the bars standing mockingly before him, as solid as ever "You see, it seems this transponder oscillator was very useful in the building industry some years ago, but had serious secondary effects towards the ones using it. This invention sends waves in a determined frequency that makes the particles of the floor vibrate, making the material more malleable and easier to work with, but as the people living here are composed of the same materials in a minor extension, the waves affected them too, but with long-term modifications."

"What happened to them?" she gasped

"They melted." Jack called

"Like ice cream in summer." The Doctor added

"But that's horrible! And why does the TARDIS need a transponder annihilator?" she exclaimed

Jack snorted from where he was laying comfortably "Yeah Doctor. Tell us why you need the transponder simulator so much."

Crap. What was his excuse again?

"Uh-hm, well, this object participates in a very complex mechanism of setting the coordinates I command in the TARDIS to the actual vortex so we can land when and where we want to. That's why this transponder stipulator is so important, yeah."

Check that! A totally plausible and well-constructed excuse.

Rose looked at him skeptical. Jack was trying his best not to laugh out loud.

Maybe the lie wasn't as good as he thought.

"You see, Doctor, I have two questions to make. The first one is that if there's such an essential piece in the TARDIS right now, how is it that we never land when or where we're supposed to?" the Doctor opened his mouth, but nothing went out of it "And secondly, if it _really _is _that _important, why do you two keep forgetting its name? The transponder part alright, but the action-ator? You don't stop changing it."

He did change the name of the transponder excavator, didn't he.

"T-That's not the important issue at the moment. First of all, we have to find a way out of here before we are accused of treason against the population of this planet and beheaded. I like my head attached to my body, thank you very much."

She rested her back against the wall and mused "Hmm, seeing as your toying with the screwdriver didn't make any difference, we have to look for other way out, right?"

"Exactly. I can try to open the lock of the door with the sonic, but it will take time." He scanned the door with the screwdriver and frowned. It had an extra protection for sonic waves.

"If only we had the key…" Jack mused, an amused tint in his voice

She played with the object of her hand "Yeah, right? If someone had found a great opportunity to snatch the key before the guard left, maybe we could escape right now."

He frowned at their tone. What the hell were they talking about? Then he raised his gaze and saw the black key rolling between Rose's fingers and her playful smile.

"Wha- How- Is this-"

"The key. Of our cell."

"Why do you have it?"

Jack sat down "You see, Doctor, it was a very good example of teamwork. When the jailor closed us, I suggested him to go on a date when we're out of here…"

"And when he was occupied answering him, I may have taken the key off his belt when he was _distracted_. Jack, I swear he has a thing for you." She laughed

"And who doesn't?" he wiggled his eyebrows with a charming smile

The Doctor couldn't do other thing than look at both of them, amazed. A wide grin slowly decorated his scowling features as he realized how dependable his companions were.

"You two are fantastic, did you know that? Now let's get out of here. We have yet so much more universe to see."

After opening the door and running their way outside, their captors learned they had vanished from their cell. Alarms went off, the guards came out, and the three were followed by an angry mob.

When they reached outside, Jack tumbled and almost fell, the special properties of the floor long forgotten. The Doctor took impulse and jumped as far as he could.

"C'mon, jump as far as you can! I don't want to be electrocuted!"

Rose followed shortly behind him "I thought they were going to behead us?"

"They have three king of mortal sentences: beheading, electrocution and becoming fertilizer; mind you, I'm not particularly fond of any of these!"

"So we hop for our lives?" the captain shouted from behind, regained his equilibrium.

"Exactly!"

.-.-.-.-.-.

The three occupants of the TARDIS laid on the floor, sour, drenched in sweat and panting for air. They had somehow managed to escape that crazy planet unscathed, and now they were floating away in the time vortex.

Rose began to giggle lightly, but soon escalated to a heart-warming laugh the three shared.

"Oh my god, this must have been the craziest trip we've ever had!"

"Sure is. Doctor?" Harkness called, still lying limply on the floor

The Time Lord raised his head "What is it?"

"Where's the transponder obturator?"

He looked around him, not finding the gadget anywhere "Looks like we left it behind. Maybe that's why they stopped following us?"

"It must be." She answered

Jack stood up and eyed at him curiously "Anyway, I'm going to take a shower. Remember you two can join me whenever you want." He winked

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll keep it in mind." Rose called as he left the room

Now it was the time for the Doctor to raise both. Rose looked at him and giggled at his expression "Doctor, it was a joke!" she laughed "Even if it's somehow inviting…"

He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of the water. Some seconds later, though, he clasped his mouth shut and frowned "I'm not gonna ask." That only made her laugh more

"Anyway, now that the transponder escalator is lost, do we have to find another one?"

He shrugged his shoulders "Bah, we can go without it. It was only a replacement, anyway, and the one installed now works just fine."

She hummed "I see…" she stood up and walked to where he was still resting. He looked at her in confusion, and his ears turned light pink when she planted a kiss on his cheek.

"What was that for?"

"Hmm, just for being you."

And then he was left alone, lying on the floor of the control room and looking at the ceiling. He sure did have fantastic ideas.


	17. The power of benevolence

**I'm sorry I'm a bit late but I was on a trip with some friends in Lanzarote and I didn't bring my tablet with me so I had to wait another week to update. But I came up with a lot of ideas for future chapters (look up Caleta de Famara and Jameos del Agua and you'll know what I mean). Anyway there it comes another original chapter. I hope you like it as you did the last one.**

**Ch. 14. The power of benevolence**

_"The feeling of being left alone, forgotten, powerless but feared. I've lived it."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

"Then she said 'If I could use a kimono with the same gracility as you I would be the most famous Geisha in Kroop'sha' and only then she undressed, bowed, gave me her kimono and went to stage completely naked."

Rose looked at him with wide eyes "Really?"

"Oh yeah, and let me tell you something: the show was _really_ successful that night, and Naoko-chan was known in many other planets as the Naked Geisha."

She laughed as the Doctor sighed "How is it even possible that all your stories end up with someone naked?"

"C'mon Doc, these are the most exciting ones." he patted his back laughing "Did I tell you the one at the cave with-"

"Yes you did. And could you please stop before I throw up imagining your naked ass?"

They were scrambled at the library, Jack sitting on the love chair while Rose and the Doctor shared the sofa, the Doctor in a seating position with Rose's feet on his lap. They were resting after going to the Winterfall Festival in a planet which name Rose had long forgotten (it began with something like Alkwya) and Jack had once again taken the task of entertain them.

"These Shandians are crazy people, let me tell you. Oh and they are as good in bed as dancing."

"Jack" he warned

Said man ignored him "You know Rosie? They were descendants of Japanese humans, and adopted their culture. That only makes me wonder how was the original product."

"I'm not taking you to old Japan." The Doctor sentenced

"I wasn't even asking! You party popper..."

"I don't want to know how many things could possibly go wrong if I leave you and some Japanese concubines alone for one day. You would create an alternate universe in the safest possibility."

Rose stretched her shoulders "Oh but Doctor, it could be really interesting to see how actual Geishas were like, don't you think so?"

And then she made The Look. Her eyes widened slightly and brightened, her mouth was put between a pout and a little smile, and her cheeks –how the hell did she do it?– acquired a mesmerizing soft pink, what made all her face utterly adoring.

He knew he had fallen for the look _again_, and a little spark on her eyes made him suspect she knew too.

The Doctor sighed in defeat "Okay, we're going to Japan, but with one condition. We are going to catch a glimpse of the culture, and if we bump into a geisha it will be by and only by chance. We're not looking for okiyas -geisha houses- and we totally won't explain them the success of Naoko the Naked Geisha. Understood?"

She jumped in delight and hugged him tightly, rushing as fast as possible outside, shouting something like 'blending in society'. Jack chuckle snapped him out of his thoughts and he raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Nothing. It's just that your infatuation is showing a little bit."

He growled "I'm not infatuated, Captain, and less with her."

The human frowned "And why not? If I didn't consider Rosie my little sister, I would be totally mesmerized by her. Her innocence is charming, and she is quite good-looking, may I say." He ignored him and left the room, making his way to the console room, but Jack would have none of it "Don't escape now, Time Lord."

"I'm not escaping, I heard what you had to say and I just chose to ignore it." by the time he ended his sentence, they had already arrived at their destination

"So you don't feel anything for her."

"She's a companion and a dear friend. Nothing more, nothing less; and it will stay like this. I have many rules in my ship, Jack, and one of the most important ones is: 'Don't mess companionship with feelings'." He tried to set up the coordinates but Jack kept undoing his every action "Stop it now. What is your problem?!"

"You and your total avoidance of people who makes an approach."

"I'm done talking, Captain."

"Oh but I'm not. Because there was a thing you said before. One tiny little thing that almost went unnoticed. Because you've said just seconds ago that you follow that considerably stupid rule of keeping it on your pants, but does it mean that there's nothing more between you not because you not feeling it, but because of a tiny little rule?"

He looked up flabbergasted and felt his ears heat up. _Fantastic_, he thought sarcastically "Of course not. What is this nonsense coming from, Jack?"

He leaned on the console "I'm just tired of your crazy little dance of pheromones and sexual tension as if measuring which one of you will snap first. Well, I'm telling you that if it keeps much longer the one that is going to snap will be me, and I won't be responsible of the consequences."

The Doctor opened his mouth, only to close it again. After some moments, he began pushing buttons again, setting the correct coordinates. When everything was settled he sighed and rubbed his neck uncomfortable.

"The rules are there to follow them." he muttered, suddenly feeling exhausted

"But sometimes there are rules that have to be broken."

"Which one?" a feminine voice interrupted them from the corridor. The Doctor pushed too much a lever he was holding and the TARDIS protested, sending almighty sparks to his hand. He yelped in pain and took his extremity back, before the sentient ship could harm him more. He made up 200 different excuses in the 0'5 second he spent raising his head, but they were left forgotten when he laid his eyes on her.

Rose was wearing a soft pink kimono that seemed to embrace her figure enough to be suggestive and not an obstacle running, and its colour seemed to accentuate the natural blush decorating her cheekbones. The Doctor found it too adorable for her own good.

Seeing his gobsmacked friend -who didn't blame, she was stunning- Jack smiled "Rosie! You're as gorgeous as ever. You see, I was trying to convince the Doctor here that the 'Not wandering off' rule was overestimated and to let us have some little fun on our own."

The Doctor recovered quickly "And I was telling him that, as I know how companions wandering alone ended up in trouble, it was a rubbish idea."

"But Doctor, most of the time is you who gets us in trouble, even if we stick together."

She had a point.

"Anyway, I've settled up the coordinates to good old Kyoto. Are you two ready yet?" And without waiting for a reply, he pushed down a lever and the TARDIS set up in motion, taking them unusually softly to their destination.

He opened the doors and let his two passengers absorb the view outside "Welcome to Japan. Now let's go." He began his march, but the other man grabbed his arm.

"I'm expecting a proper thank you, you know."

"I had everything sorted" he scoffed

"Sure you had. But I can forgive you if you invite me to a drink."

"You're not my type, Captain."

Said man laughed "Oh, believe me, I know which is your type."

The two men joined Rose, who was staring at the lighten lanterns with awe. It was night time, and the town seemed to be dormant. Wooden houses surrounded them, and in the horizon they could see the silhouette of a big palace a big full moon illuminating it from behind.

"Here we are, at the outskirts of Kyoto, 1336. Interesting year, I admit. Just after the downfall of the Kenmu Restauration begins the Muromachi era, the city ruled by a samurai named Ashikaga Takauji. This period is known as the beginning of the power fragmentation in Japan, with the establishment of the North and South courts, with two different emperors: Ashikaga in the North and the Daikakuji line in the South."

"And why it was two different Emperors back there?" She asked

"It was a silent battle of opinion: there were the people who thought that what needed the country was a change, others believed in tradition and legends. They thought the gods were going to punish them if they ignored their designs, so they complied. But even if the imperial paper was relegated to a ceremonial setup, this period was known for its advances in economy and commerce, beginning the trading with foreign countries in Europe and Asia."

They walked through the desert streets of the town, the only audible sounds being the ground altered under their feet and the Doctor's clear voice, which resonated around them as if a silent crowd was listening eager for his words. That was one of her favourite parts when they visited a new place: the Doctor explaining compliantly why the place was like this, and what would become later on.

"So," Jack spoke up "why did they think the gods were going to punish them if they elected another emperor?"

He took a deep breath "All because of legends, of course. You see, before Muromachi era, the Emperor line was the one who legitimately possessed something called the Three Sacred Treasures. Legends talk about a goddess named Amaterasu who sent her grandson Ninigi-no-Mikoto to pacify Japan, and as a sign of her legacy, she gave him these objects, which consisted of a sword, representing the bravery; a Magatama, the benevolence; and a mirror as the wisdom. They were assigned as the blessing of the gods, so their possession legitimated their divine role as the mediator between the gods and the humankind."

"Then which was the real origin of these sacred objects?"

"That's the interesting part, Rose. Nobody knows it. There are no record of them being built in all Japan, and their unique properties cannot be reproduced with total accuracy."

Oh, how much he loved a real mystery. That was what kept him on go: the unknown, the following little clues to discover a major truths that only one or two beings in all the universe know.

Hurried steps snapped him out of his awe and fixed his gaze up front. Then their saw a dark figure running towards them, escaping from an angry mob lurking behind, spears on their hands, prepared to use them. Deciding that one unarmed deserved a chance, Rose grabbed the hand of the fugitive and the four of them began running towards dark narrow alleys.

That seemed to do the trick, and the obtuse guards lost their track after some minutes of hiding on the shadows. The woman they had helped, who had his face hidden under a big conic straw hat, tried to catch her breath catching mouthfuls of air.

"Thank you." She panted "For saving my life there, even if I'm just a stranger. I owe you my life. Oh but where are my manners? I didn't even introduced myself."

Then she took off her hat and stared at them. They were regarded with a delicate pale face, with full lips and eyes so blue that seemed to glow in the dark. But what shocked them the most was that, on top of her hair, between long strands of onyx hair, stood two white furry ears which, like a dog, twitched at the most soft sound.

"My name is Amaterasu, nice to meet you."

.-.-.-.-.-.

"It can't be! Are you telling us you're _the_ Amaterasu of the legends? But that happened hundreds of years ago." She was going to add something more, but some soldiers passing by made them lower their voice to avoid being caught. The stranger's ears were always pointing up, on guard, listening to any sound.

"Oh but that's what I love of a good old legend: they are always based on something true." he leaned on the wooden wall of the house behind him "Remember Troja? It was a real battle, but in order to spread it they decorated the facts as well as they could: they said it was all a curse from the goddesses to Paris for choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful of them all or something like that. Met the fellow. He had guts, but escaping with a woman married with a king wasn't one of his best plans."

"Doctor, you're rambling" Rose noted

He looked at her offended "No I'm not. I'm just giving some useful information that could not have total relevance at this exact moment, but enhances one's culture."

The 'goddess'' eyes twinkled "He's funny."

"Anyway," Jack spoke up "Could you tell us why is some beauty like you running away in a cold night like this?"

"Jack."

"No, leave him." Amaterasu giggled "I like him too. He's charming."

Jack grinned smugly, and the Doctor once again gave him a warning glance, which he ignored.

"I was not lying about my name. I am Amaterasu, and I think I am the object of the legends. Yet why I feel like I can confide in some strangers that have saved my life, when they seem out of place and wearing costumes of other worlds?"

"Because you're from up there too." The Doctor deduced, and Rose gasped

"You are correct. Very well, I shall show you my residence. These streets have ears everywhere, it's not safe to talk of these kind of things at a dirty alley."

They walked in silence, the black-haired alien guiding them, taking note of every whisper, every sound around them. The guards seemed to have retreated, but it wasn't wise to lower their attention.

They soon left the town behind and took a dark footpath up a hill, their only light consisting on the moon hiding behind the branches of the exuberant trees, but she didn't seem to mind as she guided them with care. Soon they reached an opening of the trees, where a hut was standing proud. Amaterasu hurried to open the door and let them inside, lighting up some candles.

They settled down on the tatami and waited patiently as she ended illuminating the room. When she finished, she sat on top of a cushion and took of her hat, liberating her twitching ears.

"You seem to have guessed my people come from the stars, even if it's an outrageous idea in this country. It all began after my come to age ceremony, when it's a custom to make a trip around our galaxy. I was in the spaceship alone when suddenly a meteorite fell off course and crashed into one of my propellers. When I was able to stabilize the engines, I desperately needed to land and repair the fissures, but I had drifted too far from home, and the nearest planet with life at the moment was this one."

"So you landed here in hope to find materials to arrange your ship?" Rose asked

The Doctor snorted "Bet you didn't expect this planet to be far off in matter of technology, did you?"

"Certainly." She huffed "So I found myself stuck in a planet I didn't belong, with a broken spaceship, and the locals who had seen me crash thought I was a goddess sent from the above to help Japan from starvation. I told them my name and I became the ruler of the moon, as I landed at night."

She fell silent and her ears picked up, but soon left her guarded stance "I made here my residence, and ended up married with a man named Yukito and having children, but as they kept growing up, I realized I couldn't stay here. Human life is so volatile... Their whole life is just a sigh in mine, and I started to lose my family too soon. When my youngest daughter, Mitsuki, died, I comprehended I could no longer stay here."

"And what did you do?"

"Just what the legend says: I gave some of my possessions to my grandson for him to demonstrate his inheritance and he became the Emperor of this country, while I isolated myself in order to repair my ship, and I have just done that until some weeks ago."

Jack frowned "So if that's the case why haven't you left yet? I mean, everything is settled for you to go, there's is nothing that ties you to this planet anymore, so why stay here?"

"The engines won't start. Understand me, I was a novice when I crashed, so I had near to none experience with piloting a ship, let's not talk about its mechanics! So going through the guides, I discovered there was one piece I was lacking: the battery stone."

"The Magatama." The Doctor spoke up "That's what you were lacking. You gave it to your grandson along with the sword and the mirror centuries ago. Rumour has it that the Magatama seemed to glow in the dark in the early stages of Japanese history, but one day it stopped."

Amaterasu nodded "It's as you said. I presented it thinking it was just a ceremony asset just like the other ones, but my foolishness has cost me half of my life already. I tried to retrieve it on my own, but you have already seen how it finished."

"We could take you with our spaceship to your planet. Hop there, leave you, and forget about the Magatama."

She shook her head "We can't do that! My planet has a special barrier around it that only allows to trespass objects with the same resonance as it has, and the Magatama is the only object in this entire universe that has it. Any other one just is disintegrated."

The Doctor scoffed "And you just gave if for present to the most influential man of the country."

Rose elbowed him "Rude."

"So the only available option is to help you to steal it from the Emperor, right?" he grinned "Should be easy. What do we do?"

"I was thinking about a substitute, but I needed a female ally to help me. Your woman may distract them while I take the good Magatama and exchange it with this one made of Jade." she took out a pendant from inside her cleavage, not noticing the pink colour tinting the blonde's cheeks, the too wide eyes on the clever man and the slight smirk of the handsome one "You two could be the back-up if something goes wrong."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose and Amaterasu were walking through deserted corridors, their shoes against the wooden floor making the only noise of the obscured palace. They had bumped into a few guards at the beginning, but as they approached the ruler's chamber it became more difficult to spot someone.

The plan the alien had explained had been truly brilliant. As a change of power has been made recently, the rulers of the South had to find a new temple where the Three Sacred Treasures could be guarded until they were needed again. In the meantime, they stayed at the palace. At the Emperor's lodgings.

"My sons have been corrupted as centuries went by." Amateratsu explained "Now my grandson is more interested in satisfying his urges than the suffering of his own people. He should have seen the revolution coming years ago."

So her plan consisted in breaking in disguised as Geishas. After promising both men that Rose wouldn't end up at the ruler's mercy, Amaterasu put on her face the typical make up, leaving her face white and blood-tinted lips and hid her ears inside an elaborated bun.

She opted to leave Rose as natural as she could, as it would be their passport to walk into with less questions. Rose had her reservations, but as they calmly walked inside, the guards not even regarding their presence, she had to admit Amaterasu was a great strategist.

"Amaterasu." she muttered

"Call me Ama-san. We will draw suspicion if you use my full name."

"Okay. Ama-san, I just wanted to tell you I'm not the Doctor's 'woman' or something like that."

"Really?" she drew up an eyebrow

"Really. We're just friends."

"Could've fooled me. I have been alive a lot of time, child, and I recognise a lover's gaze when I see it."

"Well it's not. He's just my best mate, that's all."

They went silent for a few minutes, then Ama spoke up "Then I shall tell you the same words someone I appreciated with my life said a while ago, 'Even if it seems impossible, the bamboo can always bend with the flow of the wind without breaking.'"

"And what does it mean?"

"That, my child, is something I can't tell you. You have to live to learn its meaning. Maybe it will match with mine, maybe not, but it's your task to find out."

They didn't exchange more words, and some time later they arrived to their destination. The room was dimly lit by two small candles, and a big man dressed with expensive-looking clothes was chugging his liquor directly from the bottle. _That's our man_, Rose thought.

"What do you want?" the man spat without looking at their direction

Ama cleared her voice, and when she spoke up, her voice was so entrancing she had to pinch herself so she didn't lose composure "Daikakuji-sama, as a present of enduring the revolution successfully, I have brought a foreigner with me to please you this night. We haven't tested her abilities yet, but we wanted to make sure you were the first one to... test her."

The man lifted his gaze from the drink and looked at her thoughtfully with lust. He stood up -with difficulty, as his weight made his movements sloppy- and went to check the body under the kimono. She confined her need of puking and let him grapple as he pleased, as Ama, taking the opportunity she was brought, was rummaging the osier drawers of the bureau next to the futon.

"Does she understand Japanese?" he asked her, his gaze not leaving her bust

"A little bit, yeah." She smiled as her hand curled on the Magatama. Bingo.

"Do you know how to dance?"

"A bit, Daikakuji-sama." her voice was strangled in disgust, and she eyed the black-haired woman, mentally asking her to hurry up.

"Then show me."

She waited as the Emperor sat down and began placing her arms and legs as Jack had taught her some hours before in the TARDIS. When she was about to move her limbs randomly, she saw Ama placing the stone in her cleavage and nodded.

"You know what mate? There's nothing better than imagination, so use it. Oh and your hand might help you." she turned around and fled the room, the other woman following her closely. They heard the disgusting man trying to get up and call up the guards, but his feeble knees gave out and he ended up eating the floor.

The quietness lasted for a short time, the guards being alerted of their treason and beginning a persecution against them, but before they were caught a callous hand she knew oh too well grabbed her and pushed them to the shadows.

"Are you two alright?" The Doctor whispered when the annoying mob had left.

"Yeah. You have the Magatama, right?" She asked Ama-san

She took it out from her hiding place. The stone glowed faintly on her palm, and it illuminated her smiling face.

"Makes me wonder what else she is hiding there." Jack muttered

"Now, the only thing we have left is to tune up your spaceship and you can return home!"

Amaterasu hid the stone again "Right. Let me show you where it is located. The sooner we finish, the sooner I can go back home."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Green decorated the spaceship's commands as they finished the check up, and they knew everything was in good condition for the long-awaited trip. Amaterasu climbed down the metallic stairs, a huge smile decorating her now clean face. She had changed clothes, and she wore a purple one piece suit that let free her white tail, which was wiggling of happiness.

"Thank you so much for all you've done for me. My people will hear about you, and you will be always received home, I'll make sure of that."

"It was really nice meeting you, Ama-chan. And I'll stuck with that promise." the captain winked.

She giggled, and a soft blush decorated her cheeks "I'll wait for you, Captain."

"Right. Stop the flirting please. My ears will pop up of disgust." The Doctor sighed "Anyway, Amaterasu, it was an honour to meet a legend."

She nodded and shook hands with him. Looking at Rose, she smiled and tugged at the golden chain around her neck, revealing a round pendant made with the same material as the Magatama. She handed it to her.

"This is my present for you, Rose."

She eyed the present wary "Don't you need it to go back home?"

"I have enough stone for the trip. Now take it, my friend."

She complied and clasped her fingers around it. It was warm at touch "Thank you. I hope you find your family soon."

She regarded her with a bittersweet smile "My family is long gone, but you will always stay in my heart, wanderers of the skies. Now I must go. Don't forget my words, Rose."

"I won't."

She nodded and climbed up the stairs, shutting the door behind her. When the machines were activated, the vehicle was surrounded by a green glow and ascended slowly, just to lurch forward at amazing speed and disappear on the night sky.

Later in the TARDIS, they were standing around the console.

"Kyoto, check. Now where do you want to go?"

Rose thought about it "Why don't you choose this time?"

A small smile grazed on his lips. Maybe he could take them to Barcelona -the planet, not the city- and let them see the dogs with no noses. He was thriving to see her reaction to them. He could allow her to have one here, only if he had his own room and didn't mess up with his things.

He was about to set the coordinates when the TARDIS shuddered one time, shook back and forth and a white light blinded them.

And that was the las thing they remember when it all became black.

**It's beginning**


	18. Parting of the ways

**Well, I know I'm kind of late, and I come with half the chapter I wanted to post, but I didn't want you guys to wait too much. I hope you like the chappie and I'm sorry if it seems a bit shorter than usual.**

**Ch. 15. ****The parting of the ways**

_"__Don't worry, she's alive"_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose opened her eyes with a groan. She tried to stretch her stiff arms, but instead she bumped into a hard surface. She reached her numb hands forward and touched the cool surface before her. She pushed lightly and the "wall" opened, stumbling forward.

Before her face met the floor, two gentle hands supported her weight and stopped her fall.

"Oh dear, be careful! Are you okay?" a sweet voice asked her

She blinked trying to ease the fog of her mind "Wha…"

"You're feeling dizzy, right? It's a side-effect of the transmat, it will wear off soon. I'm Lynda. With a y, not an i. What's your name?"

What was it again? "… Rose, I think."

"Nice to meet you, Rose." She smiled. Now that she was more focused, she could actually look at her. She had her blonde hair pulled up in two spiky pigtails, and she was smiling sincerely at her "I'm glad the newest housemate is another girl. After Mandy left us it felt kind of lonely, so we have to support each other, right?"

"New participant, please go to the Diary room." A mechanic voice suddenly resonated around them"

Rose looked around confused "What was this voice? What is the diary room?"

"It's a place where you tell how you feel and your experience inside the house. There's only you, a comfortable couch and a camera."

"A came…" her voice died down as she saw the dark objective on the top corner of the room, similar to the one behind the obscured window

"…Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to say the most important thing. Welcome to Big Brother, live on Channel 44000."

"You've got to be kidding me."

She suddenly noticed her surroundings. They were standing in some sort of living room that emanated what she could only define as a retro aura, with all those colourful paintings and -is that a chair with hand shape? In the middle of the room stood a black woman, in her mid-thirties and a younger man, both of them throwing looks at her while whispering -about her, for sure.

_Oh hell no, I'm not becoming a reality show victim, that's for sure._ With that thought in mind, she left Lynda's side and explored the enclosure of the house, looking for any exits there were. Lynda, not noticing anything wrong, tagged with her while she explained her how things were like in the house.

"... So Mandy was this cute little girl that had everyone enchanted. I thought for sure she was going to win; I mean she was both gorgeous and nice, but then Strood -that guy over there- broke her necklace and she became the devil! Poor Strood may be a little rude sometimes, but c'mon, he didn't mean to."

Rose hummed in agreement as she tried to move the window. Deadlock.

"So boom, the house asks her to leave and five minutes later there you appear. May I tell you that appearing inside a cupboard is quite unusual, that makes my appearance inside the pool comfortable in comparison." She shut up at the same moment Rose tried to open the door. Closed too "So tell me, as you came here later than all of us, I'm sure you've seen the show. Can I ask you -and tell me if it's too rude to ask for- what the outsiders think about me?"

"Huh?" she looked up and saw her waiting patiently for an answer, her eyes sparkling with anticipation "Oh, hmm they like you. You're sweet and the spectators have totally noticed it."

"Really?" she grinned and her cheeks acquired a soft pink colour

They continued to explore the house, Lynda not leaving alone for a second, and explained her so many things Rose really doubted she could remember half of it. She huffed impatiently; none of the doors gave in, and all the windows were sealed, but she was far from giving up.

"So tell me a little about yourself, Rose. Where are you from?"

"I..." she shook her hazy head, and suddenly her memories from the past moments she had been conscious rushed in, making her gasp "Oh my... We went to Tokyo, because Jack wanted to see some Geishas, and we were chilling at the TARDIS when she lurched forward, making us fall, and then there was all these light... And then I'm here.

But wait, how could the ray go through the TARDIS's defences?" she mused "He said the TARDIS was the most secure place on the universe, so something's gotta be terribly wrong. Where were we again, Lynda?"

"TV station on Satellite 5." She answered automatically

She bit her nail "Satellite 5...? Why does it ring a bell?" she shrugged "Anyway, if it's a TV station, I'm sure there are more TV programmes shot here, aren't they?"

She snorted "Of course, dummy."

"That means they are here somewhere too. Lynda, you've got to help me get outta here. I've got to find him."

She began pacing around the room again, Lynda still following her utterly disoriented.

"But I don't understand, find who?"

Rose looked at her dead in the eye "We've got to find The Doctor."

If Lynda thought she was barmy, she didn't show it. She looked around hesitant and scratched her head.

"I really don't know how to get out of here, Rose. I just can think about one and you won't like it."

Before she could add anything more, they were called to gather at the living room. When the two blonde girls arrived, the two other contestants were already there, sitting on the uncomfortable-looking sofa in the middle of the room, a big camera in front of them. Lynda motioned her to get a sit, and she did just that on the arm.

"What are we doing here?" Rose asked quietly

"We're waiting for the vote's result. In just a moment they'll announce who's leaving next."

"Participants of Big brother," an automatic female voice spoke from all directions. The three contestants grabbed hands and shut their eyes tightly "The person who is leaving the house today is..."

Each second of uncertain felt like ages for the ones sitting in the living room, for all of them less Rose, who was looking at them confused.

"... Crosbie. Please, make your way to the exit."

The black woman gasped and instantly began trembling. Lynda had tears in her eyes, her mouth covered with her hand so she wouldn't sob, not like the boy, who was hugging her and wailing like a child. And before all this Rose stood frowning.

"I don't want to leave..." the woman finally broke down, tears streaming down her face. She stood up solemnly and made her way to a door nearby, opened it and stood on a white corridor

"Why is everyone so distraught? She's leaving, isn't it? Then why the tears?"

Lynda looked at her horrified "Don't you dare joke about that. How can you be so heartless?"

Rose stared at them dumfounded, but her expression changed to one of horrific realisation as a white ray shot from above and Crosbie disappeared.

"What the hell is going on?!" she demanded

"It's the show. You win or you die." The man answered

She stared at them coldly "And is it worth it to put your life in line for the sake of a contest?"

"It's not like we want to be here!" Lydia shouted "The contestants are picked up at random by the programmers, the only chance we have to come back home is to win and get out of here. It's the only way..."

"And who the hell allows this madness?"

"Badwolf Corp, honey. They bought the station decades ago and made their way to public television just like that."

Rose shuddered. That two words again. She had seen them so many times, heard them some more that it was impossible to ignore them at that point. They were a constant in their trip, as if warning them of something, but what?

Either way, she was not going to wait up to find the answer. She had to get out of that cursed place and look for her friends. She sure as hell wasn't going to die there.

She rummaged through her bigger-on-the-inside pockets in hope to find something that could help her open the door, and her hand curled around a cylindrical object. She took it out and looked at it: it was the lipstick Jack had gifted her some weeks ago, claiming it would be helpful in a handful of situations.

She turned the base around, and when the lipstick went as high as it could, the bottom opened, and the brand of the lipstick stood out a bit. Curious, she pointed the bottom to the floor and pressed the button; suddenly a bright blue light was shot and left a hole on the crating, its enclosure smoking.

Rose smiled wolfishly "I've found my way outside."

She rushed to the door where Crosbie was last seen and pointed the laser lipstick at the knob, pressing the trigger again. The knob disintegrated and the door swung open, a dark metallic corridor behind it.

"I'm leaving. Are you two coming?"

Strood deadpanned "Are you nuts? That's going to get you killed for sure. I'm staying."

"Lynda?"

Said woman furrowed her brows in thought. Then, when she made up her mind, she nodded "I'm coming with you."

They both made their exit and left behind the house, Strood still complaining about their behaviour and how they were going to get killed.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor shook his head in order to clear the dizziness he was feeling. Where was he again? Last thing he remembered was being at the console room, setting the coordinates to... where were they going again? when everything became black. And then, one minute ago he woke up with a headache comparable as the ones you get travelling with vortex manipulators.

Now that he thought about it, whose was the idea to travel among dimensions without a time capsule? Did they even comprehend the tiniest bit of the theory of time? Who was he kidding, of course not. Typically human.

Then he noticed the two robots before him. Were they there before? Most possibly, yes. But it was all the transport ray's fault, not on a lack of his side.

"This is Trine-E and Zu-zana. Welcome to What not to Wear. Are you ready for your change of image?"

He furrowed his eyebrows "What?"

But the androids paid him no mind. They turned around so they were facing each other and began bickering like old ladies in a tea party.

"Don't you think his clothes are totally out of date?" one robot noted

"Yeah, they are so twenties it's painful to see. But how to blame him, with his face he's wearing?"

"Oi!" The Doctor protested

"Yeah, Trine-E. I think we have to begin with the face, then we continue with the clothes. For starters, we have to get rid of those awful plates around his head."

"His ears? Then, what do you think about changing his eyes? Blue eyes are just _so_ common these days."

"Agreed."

Then, for the Doctor's dismay, from the arms of the two androids came out a wide variety of saws and scalpels, and they advanced towards him, or most precisely, his face.

With a swift of a hand, he took his screwdriver out of his pocket and pointed at the two gynoids, heating their hardware and making them stop with a loud _pew_ sound. He rolled the screwdriver between his fingers and placed it back again inside his beloved jacket.

"My ears are not _that_ big." he scoffed, and then turned around to leave the room.

With some trickery with the resonance of particles against sonic sub waves, he opened the door and walked outside the studio, finding himself inside a metallic corridor.

_Okay, time to find my companions. Rassilon knows trouble always seems to make a way to them._ He changed the setting of the screwdriver in order to follow the biological signature of his friends and began his search. It wasn't very precise, because it would detect any human at the Station, but he didn't have anything better at the moment.

He turned corners, walked corridors, and there wasn't a soul in the endless maze he was in. The only thing that hadn't made him throw the screwdriver again –apart of his unconditional love for his hand-made tool, mind you– was that the signal was getting stronger and stronger. Some long minutes later, he heard someone call him.

"Doctor!" Rose rushed to where he was standing and threw herself into his open arms, glad that they had found each other

"Rose, are you alright? Is Jack with you?"

She shook her head "I woke up alone, and made my way outside as quickly as possible. You're the first one we've bumped into."

"We?" he wondered and Rose pointed beside her with her head. There, looking between confused and uncomfortable, stood a girl with pigtails "Oh, who are you?"

"Rude." Rose muttered

"I'm Lynda, with a y, not an i." she answered, relieved they were addressing her

Rose took into account that she was still hugging the Doctor and left his embrace. Later she would deny wholeheartedly she felt longing when she left his embrace. So would the Doctor.

"Actually, we have to show you something. It's not far from here, just some turns here and there and there it is. Lynda, can you take us?"

Said woman nodded and they followed silently, hand in hand. As Rose had said, they didn't have to walk too much until they bumped into a too familiar room, where they had stood only half a year ago.

"It's..."

"Satellite 5, yes."

He rubbed his short hair "But it can't be! After the MAX incident it was all settled for human development for a greater future, and instead we have this?" with his hands he pointed atound them

"After the incident that exposed the manipulation of the news," Lynda spoke up "all broadcasting ceased, and whole countries were left in the dark. Wars began, society collapsed, and the planet froze instead of going forward.

Then a corporation bought the long abandoned Satellite 5 and reformed it, and all the population let them control them with this sick games, where they decide if you live or you perish."

The Doctor rubbed his head frantically, pondering all the information that had been poured to him. Who would've thought things would go so wrongly? Cathica was there to explain it all, he'd thought they had everything sorted, but it seems he didn't face all the possible outcomes. In this body he wasn't very good reading timelines, after all.

"That's not all." Rose added "There's something else you have to know.

"What more?"

"The name of the corporation is Badwolf."

She observed as he paled, coming to the same conclusion as her. His face hardened and he stared at her.

"We've got to get to Jack. Now. Do you see a screen or something of sorts?"

Rose pointed at one and looked at him hacking into the system again.

"But I don't understand. Why such a big reaction for the Corp?" Lynda asked

"It's more the name than the Corp as it is. You see, we're travellers, and everywhere we went there were two words that seemed to haunt us. They were mentioned, seen with the corner of the eye, or sometimes more noticeable, but they were always present. And that words were Bad Wolf."

"And what do they mean?"

"I don't know." The Doctor spoke from where he was standing "But they seem to manipulate us, making us come here and participate in the games. That's why we've got to take Jack and end this madness as soon as possible." he nodded to the screen "I've located him, he's still inside a game. Let's go."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Jack stared ahead stoically, not letting any emotion pour onto his handsome face. As far as he'd recollected, he had somehow moved from the TARDIS to some sort of sick pop quiz where you had to answer questions about the 31st Century.

He knew some of them, but he hadn't gotten an A in history class –well, he had gotten a B, but that's because that night with the teacher and that red pen…

Anyway, he was nor the cleverest nor the stupidest there, but he suspected he was still alive for his looks. The boy winning definitely had that glint in the eye every time he spoke. He wouldn't mind returning the favour.

Anne Droid –if her name wasn't clear enough– spoke again, beginning the last round of The Weakest Link. There were questions thrown here and there, and he managed to answer them all –some of them was sheer luck what saved his ass– but then the last question came and he didn't have a clue what to respond. Really, who the hell was this 'Face of Boe'? And why his name rings a bell?

Anyway, there he was, Roderick looking at him like a kicked puppy while naming him, and then the door burst open and they there were: The Doctor and Rose, looking almighty, once again coming to save him.

He stepped forward, but soon realized his fatal mistake, as he had seen it before. The game was still on; you step outside the ring, you're immediately disqualified, then erased.

Then everything became like the movies; when the main character is about to be shot to dead, time seems to slow down, what makes the viewer able to grasp every tiny detail, every swing of a leave of the tree nearby, how he gets caught in the fire to then die.

It was the same here. Jack looked at the droid, who began to turn around because of the violation of the rules. He heard a gasp and some feet moving towards him at great speed. The android settled his objective, and announced he would be eliminated, and at the same time it pressed the trigger of his laser gun, some yellow blur pushed him aside, making him stumble and fall, what allowed to see the pretty face of his saviour before the ray struck her and she disappeared in a dust cloud.

It was the face of the woman whose jeopardiness had saved his lives in more ways than one. The face of Rose. And now she existed no more.

"ROSE!" The Doctor cried when the shock vanished, and he rushed to where the Captain laid.

He kneeled down and grabbed some dust, swallowing a sob that was about to leave his lips, and he didn't oppose resistance when they were taken away by the guards.

**A/N: (Which actually it's an A's friend/N) Hey guys, I'm here just to let you know that while my friend was writing this she had a creepy grin in her face and even giggled once in a while, specially while writing the end. Also, I've been waiting for her to eat dinner, so even if you hate her because the fic is getting angsty or because of cliffhangers, pls review or whatever, you don't know how happy she is when a mail comes saying that she has a new review. She's a qt3.14.**

**Bye guys! xxx**


	19. Not saying goodbye

**Ch. 16. Not saying goodbye**

_"__Are you afraid of the big Bad Wolf, Doctor?"_

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor, Jack and Lynda followed the detention protocol without uttering a word. Whey were man-handed, their information recorded and were now being interrogated with no success. Every threat that went from the guard's lips fell on deaf ears, as the Doctor stared numb forward.

Their sentence was decided: for irrupting in the games and putting in danger the lives of the staff, they were going to be held inside a lunar penal colony until a trial took place. Just as the guard opened the door to let in the squad in charge to transport them, the Doctor raised his gaze with sharp eyes and nodded to Jack.

"Let's do it." He simply said.

Jack spun to action and kicked the guard standing at the now open door. He stumbled forward and distracted the other two guards, who didn't see the Captain coming and where disarmed rather quickly. He punched one of them, who fell unconscious, and he was about to attack the other one when the guard he had kicked stood on his feet and took his baton to incapacitate the man.

He didn't expect the older prisoner pushing him to the wall with such force to fall unconscious before he touched the ground.

Jack grabbed their weapons and handed one to the girl -Lynda, wasn't she?- and another to the Time Lord, his eyes twinkling.

"What." he spat

"You've got some strength hidden under that leather, Doctor." He whistled "Who knew."

"There's a time and a moment for that, Jack; and that's not the one." the doors of the lift opened "Now get inside. We're going to floor 500."

When the doors opened again, they confronted a fearful mob of programmers who were taking steps backwards. There was a woman who seemed wired to the mainframe, and kept muttering things without acknowledging their presence.

"Okay, everyone away from the desk!" Jack warned, showing his weapons "Nobody try anything 'clever'. Everybody clear; stand to the side. And stay there."

The Doctor advanced impassive, and stood before the too white woman, who kept muttering to herself "Who is in charge of this place?"

She only muttered random numbers.

"Answer me! Who the hell killed Rose!?" the Doctor demanded

"... all programmers be warned that there is going to be a solar flare at delta point one..."

"She won't reply." one programmer answered. The Doctor turned sharply, his gun pointing at them. The man raised his arms "Don't shoot!" he whimpered

He eyed down and threw the weapon at him "Wasn't even gonna use it. Jack, secure the exits; make sure no one comes here. Now answer."

The man eyed the gun "B-but I've got your gun."

"Then shoot me. Why isn't she answering?"

"She- Uh, can I put this down?"

"Do as you please just hurry up."

"Okay, thanks." he dropped it aside "She isn't ever aware you're here. The only ones registered in her memory are the staff members, so if you're not one of them she doesn't recognise your existence."

He looked back at her "What's her name?"

"I don't know. She was installed when she was five and plugged to the central computer. She has been so long she no longer possesses a mind of her own, all she sees is programming." he paused "But I heard you and the blonde girl commenting something was odd in the station - you were right." Jack began scanning with his vortex manipulator and headed to a door "I've been picking up locks, unauthorised transmats, encrypted signals... going on for years. I've recollected them all in my computer."

"Okay, show me."

The man guided him to his computer and started working on it. Jack began to fiddle with the control of the door in front of him; he caught some really high readings of the vortex coming from there, and he was almost sure the TARDIS was being held there. The door clicked open and a hostage spoke up.

"Anyone's allowed there! Arch one hundred six is out of bounds."

Jack looked back and waved his weapons "Does it look like I am the 'out of bounds' sort of guy?" He put his hand on the control and opened the door, stepping inside.

The programmer opened the archives where he had been recording all the disrupting and the Time Lord began reading all of them. It was really strange, as if somebody was controlling what was transmitted careful enough to being unnoticed.

The lights suddenly went out and they were left in an eerie darkness, the only light coming from the emergency system. The Doctor looked around, confused.

"Don't worry, it's only the solar flare. It'll soon pass and we'll have the power back."

"Doctor..." a soft voice muttered. The woman who had spoken before heard it and looked at the controller surprised. Did she...? When she muttered it again, she was sure of it.

"Doctor, she's calling for you!" Said man looked up and she pointed to the wired woman, who was roaming her eyes around, looking for him even though she was blind.

He rushed to where she stood and stared up at her "I'm here."

"Doctor... During the solar flares my connection to my masters is damaged, and they cannot read my thoughts, so I am free to speak. All I see is numbers..."

"Who are your masters?"

"I can't tell; the name is forbidden in my head. They have been controlling my mind all this years, controlling the human existence, but I caught a glimpse of you in one of the transmissions and brought you here. I enrolled the three of you to the games so you would find your way to me."

"And that was worth putting us on danger? Killing Rose?"

"It is irrelevant."

"Not to me!" he roared

"My masters are hiding in the dark space, watching and shaping the Earth at their will for centuries. Increasing in number, growing stronger. But there was one thing they were afraid of, and that was you Doctor."

"Who are they!?"

"You have to help us..." she pleaded. Suddenly the power came back and every screen lit up again. Power began to rush into her again and she was shut up, staring into the space numbly.

"D-... D-d-..." that was the only thing that went through her lips

The Doctor turned around sharply "When is the next solar flare?" he demanded

"In two years time."

"Fat lot of good that is." he spat at the programmer

Suddenly, Jack rushed inside the control room "Doctor, I've figured it out! You wanna watch this. Lynda, honey, could you stand over here for a bit, please?" he placed her on a seemingly random point of the room and pushed a button of the keyboard.

Suddenly, a bright beam was shot from above and stroke her, making her disappear only leaving a pile of dust behind. The Doctor looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

"But you killed her..."

"Or so it seems. But if I do this..." he typed something and pushed the same button again. Then, for the surprise of all the presents, Lynda appeared again, but then beside the Doctor. She tumbled and grabbed her head, groaning.

"What was that?"

"It's a transmat beam." Jack explained "Not a disintegrator but a secondary transmat system. The people who get hit by it don't die, but they are teleported elsewhere, which means..."

"... that Rose is alive!" The Doctor, finally catching up with him exclaimed and he had a grin splitting his face in two. He soon went and hugged the man, feeling awfully relieved.

"Now we only have to track the signal down, find where the receiving end of the transmat is and get Rose out of there. Jack, let's get on with it."

"I will tell you." The controller spoke up again

"Don't. They will know you're helping us."

But she paid no mind. She began chanting the coordinates, and Jack was quick to write them down. The Doctor pleaded her to stop, but she didn't. She told them, knowing what was her fate and assuming the risk whole-heartedly. As soon as she managed to say the last number, she was teleported away, the wires that tied her dinging without power rushing through them.

After the shock settled down, Jack began typing furiously, searching for an image of what was there. He instructed the Doctor to turn on the hologram of the screen. He did just that, and with the flick of the screwdriver, an image of the empty space appeared before them.

"The signal delivers right there. The edges of the solar system."

"It's nothing there." the woman muttered

"It only seems like it. But it happens to be another signal transmitted from here that interferes with the images of all satellites, making it seem as if there's nothing there, like an invisible shield. This kind of tech would have made possible to perform the Jagrafess incident, so that means they've been controlling human race much longer than that. Now, let's see who's playing hide and seek."

He sonicked the computer, nullifying the hidden signal. Suddenly, an image was forming before their eyes, and dozens of spaceships became visible. The Doctor gasped and straightened up.

"That can't be... I know these ships... But they were all destroyed."

"Who are they?" Lynda asked concerned

"That's an entire fleet. The nurse spaceship in the middle, with about two hundred smaller ships around it." The Doctor muttered, his eyes transfixed on the screen "That makes an army of half a million of-" he choked up

"Half a million of what?"

"Daleks."

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose woke up with a shiver. She was lying on the floor, and for the steam coming from her mouth, she decided her jumper wasn't enough to block the cold of the room. She sat up and stared around confused, not comprehending why she was there when she suddenly remembered.

She looked down and examined her chest, where the beam had struck. _I'm alive_, she thought. She got on her feet, when movement on her side caught her attention. She turned around and froze. Her whole body turned stiff, but as the Dalek kept approaching, she stumbled backwards, putting as much space as possible between them.

"It can't be... I saw you... die."

She tried to escape, but the alien pinned her on the wall, trapping her between his plungers. She stared at the blue orb that was his eye as he ordered her to stay still or she would be exterminated. Soon the room was filled with more Daleks and she paled. Just how many of them there were? She only pleaded the Doctor figured it out before she was exterminated.

Soon one Dalek came inside the room where Rose was being held hostage, looking quite distraught, if it was possible for a tin can.

"A-LERT. WE HAVE DE-TEC-TED THE DOC-TOR IN-SIDE THE SA-TE-LLITE."

Another Dalek, possibly the commander of the group spoke up "ON YOUR PO-SI-TIONS. OPEN CO-MU-NI-CA-TIONS WITH THE SA-TE-LLITE." He them moved his eye-stick in her direction "THE HU-MAN WILL STAND BE-TWEEN THE DA-LEKS DU-RING THE CON-TACT."

She silently followed their orders and stood between two Daleks. The other aliens began working in their positions, and in front of them appeared a screen showing a dark room, but the first thing Rose saw was the face of the Doctor, whose eyes hardened when he saw the image in front of him.

They were alive, and seemed okay. She let out the air she didn't know she was holding, and suddenly felt relieve. The Doctor was there - he would know what to do.

"WE SHALL SPEAK TO THE DOC-TOR."

"Oh. Here I am. Hi." He grinned and waved his hand. Despite his carefree demeanour, Rose could see the coldness in his eyes

"WE ARE AL-MOST REA-DY. THE FLEET IS AL-MOST COMPLETE. THE DOC-TOR WILL NOT IN-TER-VIENE."

"Oh, and why is that?" he replied calmly

The 'commander's head turned around, and his eye-stick observed her "WE HAVE YOUR A-SSO-CI-ATE. YOU WILL OBEY OR SHE WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED."

The seconds turned to hours as the Doctor's eyes lingered in her. _Trust me_, they seemed to beg, and she did just that. Seeing her nodding almost imperceptibly, he returned his gaze to the Dalek beside her.

"No."

Everyone around him turned around to look at him in shock, and they weren't the only ones. The Daleks on board began to look between them, confused.

"EX-PLAIN YOUR-SELF?"

"I said no."

The commander Dalek began shaking, almost as if he was nervous "WHAT IS THE MEA-NING OF THIS NE-GA-TIVE?"

"It just means no."

"BUT SHE WILL BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED."

The Doctor stood up and placed his hands on the table, looking up at them with a scorn "I will tell you what will happen. I will destroy every single Dalek of the fleet, freeing the universe of what should have been taken out by the Time War and save the Earth."

"AND HOW WILL YOU DO IT WHEN YOU HAVE NO WEA-PONS, DE-FEN-CES NOR PLAN?"

"And doesn't it scare you to death?" he grinned the way a panther would to his pray. He then looked at her, and his eyes softened slightly enough to her to see it "And we will come to you, Rose Tyler. Do you hear me? I will save you. We're on our way."

She nodded and the screen switched off, the transmission being cut. Hell seemed to fall on the deck of the spaceship she was being held, different cries of Exterminate filling the room. The leader made a sign and the commotion quieted down.

"THE DOC-TOR HAS I-NI-TIA-TED HOS-TILE AC-TIONS."

Another Dalek spoke up "BE-GIN THE IN-VA-SION OF EARTH."

The entire spaceship seemed to roar with the word Exterminate, and she seriously wondered how many Daleks were just at the same spaceship as her. The leader turned around again and cornered in the wall again.

"HU-MAN. YOU KNOW THE DOC-TOR. PRE-DICT HIS MO-VE-MENTS."

Her eyes glinted in anger "I think you know as well as me that the Doctor is quite unpredictable."

"YOU WILL PRE-DICT! YOU WILL PRE-DICT."

"I won't, even if you kill me."

Another Dalek spoke up "WE HAVE DE-TEC-TED THE DOC-TOR'S TAR-DIS FLY-ING TO-WARDS US."

"LAUNCH THE MI-SSILES."

"But that will kill them!" Rose cried

"CO-RRECT."

She saw at the screen how the projectiles flew through the sky and impacted into the police box, causing a huge explosion that engulfed the blue from her vision. Her knees buckled, and was about to fall down when she heard a faint whoosh, soon followed by strong wind that messed her hair.

She looked in awe as the walls of the TARDIS appeared around her, the console room gaining consistence, and a black leathered man standing before her. In her happiness, she nearly forgot she was standing beside a Dalek, and when he told her to duck, she didn't do it immediately. The Dalek shot once, missing, and Jack took a really big gun out of nowhere and shot the alien, killing him in less than five seconds.

The Doctor rushed to where she stood and engulfed her in his arms, more tightly that they had ever hugged before.

"I told you I would come back for you." he whispered into her hair

She separated a bit from his chest and looked into his face smiling "I've never doubted it."

"Oh, I did." his eyes suddenly had a glint she could not catch the meaning of, and he let his arms drop from her waist "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, and you?"

"Oh, you know. I've been better." And then he kneeled down to observe the smoking remains of the Dalek.

Jack dropped the gun and waltzed to them "Do I get a hug?" he smiled charmingly

"Oh, come here." She chuckled and opened her arms to him

He stopped serious "I was talking about him." but then his face broke to a wide grin and with a laugh scooped her up

She stared at the shell of the Dalek when Jack stopped spinning her "But I don't understand, if the one in the Vault was the last of the Daleks, how come there are so many of them out there?"

"All I know is that one day they were in space, the next day vanished, as if they had never existed."

"They went to fight a bigger war." The Doctor spoke up "The Time War."

"I thought it was just a legend!" Jack exclaimed

"I was there. The war of Daleks against Time Lords. They all burned at the end, or that was what I thought. Now looking at what is in front of me makes me wonder if they died for nothing..." He sighed

"But if only one Dalek caused all that ruckus in the Vault, what about an army of them? What are we gonna do?"

The Doctor jumped, straightening up and talked with a fake chirp voice "Well, babbling like old ladies won't solve a thing. You humans and your gobs." He eyed them playfully "You want answers? Let's go meet the neighbours."

And just then he rushed and opened the door, ignoring Rose's distraught calls, and stepped outside. The Daleks soon noticed him and began to shoot, but none of the rays seemed to reach him, as if he was surrounded by an invisible shield.

"I wouldn't waste my breath, if I were you. Extrapolator force field, courtesy of our loved Blon the Slitheen. Anything will pass through it."

"Almost anything." Jack remarked, now by his side. The Doctor looked at him annoyed

"I wasn't gonna tell them that."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Anyway." He marched forward until he stood at the edge of the force field "You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek race?" he paused "The Oncoming Storm. And I know that, deep down your DNA, altered as you don't feel anything, there's a tiny little spark of emotion, and that is fear, which surfaces every time one of you face me."

The Daleks stood stoically, although she could see they seemed to hesitate a little before his words "Now, with that in mind, answer my questions. How did you survive the war?"

"THEY SUR-VIVED THROUGH ME." A new Dalek, whose voice was grave and resonated in the room, spoke up. The Doctor turned around, instantly recognizing it. It's impossible, he muttered.

Rose watched him approach the biggest Dalek she had even seen in her life. The mutant suspended in what seemed a fish tank, a huge armour of possibly fifteen feet tall surrounded it.

"Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks. But how is it even possible?"

"YOU KILLED US, DOC-TOR, BUT MY SHIP SUR-VIVED. FA-LLING THROUGH TIME, CRI-PPLED BUT ALIVE. ONE DAY I RE-TUR-NED TO OUR U-NI-VER-SE, BUT THE DA-LEK RACE HAD LONG PE-RI-SHED.

THEN I HID IN THE DARK SPACE FOR CEN-TU-RIES, RE-BUIL-DING MY AR-MY. I IN-FIL-TRA-TED THE SYS-TEMS OF THE PLA-NET OUR BI-GGEST E-NE-MY PRO-TEC-TED, CON-TRO-LLING THEM, HAR-VES-TING THEM AND TA-KING GE-NE-TIC MA-TE-RIAL TO BUILD A STRONG-EST AR-MY OF DA-LEKS!"

"That doesn't make you half human?" Rose asked. As soon as she opened her mouth, she wished she hadn't. The Dalek Emperor shouted BLAS-PHE-MY, and every single Dalek in the room cried in chorus the words 'Do not blaspheme'.

"I MADE THE PER-FECT DA-LEK OUT OF SCRAP. I REA-CHED IN-TO THE DIRT AND MADE NEW LIFE. I AM THE GOD OF THE DA-LEKS! ONLY A CELL IN A BI-LLION WAS FIT TO BE NUR-TU-RED. THE MA-NI-PU-LA-TION RE-SUL-TED IN THE CUL-TI-VA-TION OF PURE AND BLE-SSED DA-LEK."

The Doctor frowned at the strong reaction "Since when the Daleks grasp the concept of blasphemy? That has never been imprinted in your genes so how… Oh no…" he gasped, horrified when he was hit with realisation.

He made some steps back, not losing eye contact with the Emperor "Even if you had the imprinting of the Daleks, it's too much to make a life from scratch. You created hybrids, driven insane by human values. They are now self-loathing fanatic, they hate their own genetic makeup, and that makes them deadlier than ever." He turned around and grabbed Rose's hand "We have to go. Now."

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor and Rose were currently messing with some cables at the control room, on Floor 500. Well, Rose was. The Doctor was trying to take into action one of his brilliant ideas in order to stop the Dalek invasion: the building of a Delta wave.

Of course, Rose had no idea how it worked or even how to build it, but the Doctor had asked for her assistance. Jack, who could've been of more help than her, was trying to mobilize the innocent people to the lowest part of the Station while trying to gather people to help them defend it, Lynda between them.

Not that she was feeling quite ticked off by the way she batted her long eyelashes to the Doctor, when she was supposed to be more worried for her own life. Not at all.

She was still worried about Jack's behaviour before leaving. Not the part when he had snogged both of them senseless, but his words after it. It so sounded like a goodbye, and her heart ached for her friend, who was more like a big brother than the former.

So there she was, peeling cables and feeling utterly useless when the Doctor worked for ten men. They had to rush – they only had minutes to build it, when, for what Jack had said, it normally takes three days. She wished she could do so much more, but she was just a silly ape.

A sudden idea popped into her mind "Doctor…!" she called him. He raised his head to meet her eyes

"What?"

She opened her mouth, but thought against it "It's nothing."

"Rose, tell me." He insisted, stopping his work with the screwdriver

"It's… It's just silly." She returned her gaze to the wires on her hands. The Doctor took them and threw them away from her

"I want to hear it."

"It's just… if we caught the TARDIS and made a jump some days before all this happens, we would have enough time to build the Delta wave securely, then we could stop the Daleks."

He returned her the wires and looked down "We can't do that. As soon as we land on a timeline, we become part of the events. We can't exist two times at the same timeline, it would cause a paradox."

"Yeah, I understand. It's just… I wished I could be more useful." She shrugged

"Stop it. You're brilliant, Rose. Don't forget that."

They continued to work in silence, the Doctor giving some finishing touches to the wave deep in thought.

"You could ask me to take you away, you know. Take the TARDIS, fly to some distant galaxies, leaving all this mess behind. The TARDIS, you and me across the stars." He smiled sadly and looked at her "But you wouldn't do that, would ya? You're just like that."

Rose stared back, at loss of words. If she was truthful about it, it hadn't even crossed her mind. It said something about her mental health, didn't it?

An alarm took them out of their musings, and the Doctor looked at the screen, which was giving the results of their work. His mouth got slack, and his hands began trembling imperceptibly.

"How bad is it?" Rose asked with meek voice. Whatever made the Doctor behave like this, it weren't good news. But suddenly his face lightened up and grabbed her from her shoulders

"Oh Rose, you're brilliant!" he kissed her on her temple

"What did I do?" she asked, confused

"We can do it! We just have to cross our own timeline, and everything will be sorted!" he jumped on his feet and grabbed her hand, making her follow him to the TARDIS

"But didn't you say we couldn't do it?"

"I say a lot of things. C'mon, Rose, when the word impossible has ever stopped me?" he urged her forward and opened the door of the TARDIS. When they were inside, he began playing with the controls at an amazing pace, and pointed a mauve lever to her "Hold this down. When I say so pull it upwards, okay? I'm going to power up the station, wait a tick."

And then he rushed right back at the control room. When the door of the TARDIS closed behind him, he dropped his cheerful façade, and let sorrow overtake his features.

"I'm sorry." He muttered to nobody, or maybe to her, who knew. He raised his screwdriver and pointed to his beloved ship, making it begin the dematerialisation sequence. He could hear her banging on the door, her cries of desperation, calling his name.

When the TARDIS was no longer in sight, he dropped his arm and turned around, facing the problem in his hands.

"I'm sorry for not saying goodbye." The Doctor muttered, a soft smile on his face

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose let her knees quiver and she fell to the ground, defeated. She had no idea where the TARDIS was taking her, and without the knowledge of piloting her, she was at loss of what to do.

Something made a sound behind her, and when she turned around she saw the man she had just left in front of her, but the image was a bit blurry, and not only because the unshed tears forming on her eyelids at the moment.

"This is the Emergency Program One. Rose, if you're receiving this message, it means that I am either dead or about to die, with no chance of escape. I promised Jackie I would keep you safe, so the TARDIS will take you where you used to live before, but she will not return for me. Her technology, in bad hands, could destroy entire multiverses if it's taken lightly."

Rose got up and walked towards the image of the Doctor speaking. Her hand went through it, and she felt more alone than ever.

"Just let the TARDIS forgotten in a dark alley, gather dust, moulder and die. No one will notice her, and you and the universe will be safe. That's all I'm asking you to do." The image seemed to hesitate, and he suddenly turned his head to where she was standing, as if he could see her "One more thing. Rose, live a fantastic life, and remember the time you spent with the mad man and the blue box."

The image disappeared and she muffled a sob, not being able to contain her tears anymore. The TARDIS landed to her destination, a damp alley of the Powell States, and she couldn't feel more defeated.

She stepped outside and leaned on the blue wooden surface, her thoughts drifting thousands of years in the future. Someone calling her name made her turn her head, and she saw Mickey running towards her, Jackie following behind.

"I told ya, Jackie! I knew it was the sound of the TARDIS!"

As soon as they reached her, she hugged her foster mother, clinging to her as she sobbed broken-hearted. She patted her head as she let her take everything out.

"Hey, honey, why don't we talk about it in front of a nice bowl of chips and a tea, huh?"

She could only nod, and some minutes later she found herself in a chip store, Jackie and Mickey chatting animatedly, while Rose only stared out of the window.

"Rose, eat something." Mickey pleaded "You're doing no good if you close up like this."

"That's exactly the problem, Mickey." She spat "I am stuck here when, two hundred thousand years in the future the Doctor may be dying. And I can't do a single thing against it."

"But honey, that's too far away in the future. I'm sure he'll come up with something." Jackie tried to help

"It may seem a lot of time, but it's happening right now! And I can't just abandon him at his luck."

"Rose, you know I don't exactly approve you traveling with this man, more in the condition you're in! But he made the right choice for once, and that was not breaking his promise and take you back to me. And for that I respect him with all my soul."

"And what do you expect me to do!? Live a normal life, with domestics, mortgages and a boring job? How can I possibly do that when there's so much out there…" she caught her breath, stopping the sob that was about to part from her lips "I can't just keep on with a life I don't even remember when he's facing his death alone."

She stood up and made her way out the shop, not looking at the hurt expression of Jackie's face.

"I'll go get her." Mickey told her, and followed the blonde girl outside.

He found her seating on a bench at a basketball camp, her tears long dried.

"I just can't leave him, you know?" she talked to him looking at front "He was all I had when I was lost and alone, and he's my best mate, you know? I can't just give up on him."

"But he brought you here, Rose. He brought you here so you could get on with your life. That means there's nothing you can do to save him."

"Well, I can try!" she shouted, furious "One of the things he taught me is that you just don't give up. You make a stand and fight for what is right. And he is worth all my effort, even my life." She stood up and walked forward

"You can't mean that! Don't go putting your life at risk just like that, do you hear me?" when he saw she stood frozen to the ground, he walked worriedly to her side "Hey what's wrong?"

He followed her gaze. There, on her feet, there was a huge graffiti in yellow and blue that read 'Bad Wolf'. She raised her head, and could see it written in every wall, every sign around them.

"Bad wolf…" she muttered

"What about it? They must be the work of a new gang or something. Now, let's go with Jackie, okay?" he took her arm and tugged her to follow him, but she didn't bulge.

"No, you don't understand. These two words have been following us everywhere we went. The Doctor thought it was a warning, but what if it isn't? What if it's a message?" her face suddenly illuminated "Maybe it is a signal to tell me I still can get back to the Doctor!"

She turned around and ran through the street, looking for the too familiar blue box. She reached the spot she had landed before, Mickey following her short, and she opened the doors widely.

"You see," she explained the panting boy "the TARDIS isn't just a spaceship – she's alive. She's telepathic, but we can't make contact with her like this, not that I know of."

"And then what is your idea?" he asked confused

"Remember Blon the Slitheen? When she opened the Rift, she took apart the TARDIS, and that made her open this compartment." She pointed a handle on her right "Then this bright light came from there and it turned her to an egg. The Doctor said it was the heart of the TARDIS, and she made Blon's wish of a new beginning come true. If we manage to open it I can connect with her and ask her to take me to the Doctor."

Mickey paused to look at her, his face stony "You know if I help you I'll be sending you to your death."

"It's worth the risk. He's the most important person I've got."

"The most important."

"Yep." She simply said. He looked at her, his face hardened before sighing in defeat

"Wait here. I've got some chains and my car. Do you think it'll be enough?"

She hugged him and rushed him to get what was necessary to open the heart of the TARDIS. They secured one sturdy iron chain to the console, the other end chained to Mickey's Mini. He began accelerating, but as he applied more force to it, the compartment door seemed to shut even more, to the point when his car gave up, its motor overheated and fuming, but the TARDIS stood the same.

"Why don't you open!" she raged, and rested her forehead on the console, weeping

Mickey went out his car and addressed her "Don't worry. Just let my little boy rest a bit and we'll try it again."

She simply nodded, her head still resting on the cold surface of the console. It no longer hummed under her fingertips, as if she was no longer there. She felt she had lost another friend.

Jackie made her way to the console, and her hear ached when she saw Rose so defeated. She placed her hand on her shoulders, trying to soothe her, and made her best to ignore her flinch when she touched her.

"Rose, you have to stop this madness. Stay here with us for once. He returned you, don't make me lose you again."

"I can't let him die. Not like this. He needs a hand to hold, and he's all alone there."

"I don't want you to die!" Jackie cried

Rose turned around to look at her foster mother's eyes "I don't want _him _to die. He gave me a reason to keep going when I had nothing. The Doctor sheltered me when I was lost, and he didn't stop until I found the place I belonged from the start. That's the kind of man he is!" she sobbed, tears welling up again "He just means so much for me, I can't abandon him."

Jackie stared at her for some moments and left the ship, leaving her alone on the hard grating.

Half an hour later Mickey came back again, grease on his hands and smelling like smoke "I've fixed up the car. When you're ready we can try again."

She nodded and they took their places, but before he started the engines, they heard a loud siren approaching. Rose made her way out of the console room and looked outside: a big yellow truck stopped before them, and what surprised them more was that the driver was Jackie. She climbed down and gave the keys to a very perplexed Rose.

"We have until six. The guy owed me one."

She gaped "Just- how- why?"

"I just… I just felt I owed the Doctor for bringing you back home when you got lost. I hope this is a good idea."

She beamed and threw her arms around her. She whispered in her ear "Maybe you're not my biological mother, but I hope you know I love you like a mum."

"I love you too, sweetheart." Jackie's voice broke "Now let's get on it before I make up my mind."

Mickey at the wheel, Rose asked him to step on the gas, as their efforts seemed futile. The door still was clamped shut. However, before she could tell them to stop, the compartment flew open, and the heart of the TARDIS filled the room.

What Jackie and Mickey could see from the spaceship was a bright golden light, as brilliant as a sun before the doors closed. They called for Rose, but the blue box vanished before their eyes.

**Holly bananas that was long! I apologize for ending it there; you must be thinking 'what the hell, there's only less than half a chapter left and you cut it here?' The reason is that I have already written it (I actually wrote it a long time ago) and it's long. And fitting for the end of the first part of this fic. So cope with me a little bit. **

**I also want to thank all the amazing support I've received recently. You don't know how much it means to me.**


	20. Bad Wolf

**Ch. 17. Bad Wolf**

There are some things we are not able to comprehend. Our mental capacity is too short or ineffective to assimilate complex processes, and only the most brilliant minds can catch a glimpse of it, theorizing it with formulas that often end up contradicting with others long stipulated as the absolute truth.

But what would happen if one single human could expand his mind? Would he be able to observe the unimaginable? Would anyone else understand it if he explained it, or would he consider him crazy?

He would be the cleverest man, but what for? No one would believe him, and he would end up alone. But that doesn't explain why the human kind is eager to investigate, to discover things known as impossible.

Maybe that's because of one of their best qualities: curiosity. They don't stop being kids, believing in fairytales and looking for the legendary dragon living in that deep cave. Maybe they put their lives in danger, but it's all because of a major cause. They catalogue subconsciously facts and ideas, and when they're facing a problem they pop up, like a magic trick so they can find an answer.

Maybe that was what had moved her. Her oh so human instinct whispering in her ear. 'The heart of the TARDIS' it repeated subtly. The one thing that even the Doctor can't comprehend, the one that is said to make inner wishes come true.

She knew she was playing with a very dangerous fire, but that's when it came in action the second human quality for excellence: she would do anything for the people she cared about. She knew he had shut her out to protect her, so she was doing just the same. She didn't know what would happen to her, but he deserved it.

That daft alien, despite being grumpy and alone, he did all that was in his hand to save the human race, even if most of the times he had to protect them of themselves. In all his life he had been given a lot of names, he had hinted it a couple of times, but she was sure any name truly explained just who was him. Well, Doctor was a good approximation.

So she opened the trap door and looked into the heart of the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked back at her. She could only think of three single words, 'save the Doctor', and that became her wish.

Soft golden rays enveloped her, caressing her skin before disappearing inside her. She could feel them on her head, turning her sight brighter, her thoughts racing as she could only look at the little star that was the core of her beloved spaceship. She could feel her observing her, the rays almost touching her like a loving mother, and she hadn't felt more connected to anyone until then.

Everything was bright and warm, big and powerful, and she got lost in the sensation. She felt she could do anything, she was the TARDIS, after all.

No.

She wasn't a TARDIS.

When she realized it a smile almost crept up in her poker face. All the signs scattered in time and space, only to converge in one single point, two words that controlled the events until they reached its zenith, companions of their travelling even if they hadn't realized it. No, the Daleks weren't responsible of this, it was her.

She was the Bad Wolf.

She felt millions of timelines around her like strings. Mesmerized she caressed one of them and it fluttered, then showed images of the owner of this future. She saw the end very close and a ramification just three inches before. She cut the bad ending.

A strong golden cord caught her attention and touched it. It showed a lot of different faces, between them the face of the man she tried to save. Doctor… Still gripping the timeline, she placed her palm on the console and the doors flew shut. The ship began the dematerialization sequence and both of them traveled together inside the Time Vortex.

_Beware, my Wolf_. The TARDIS whispered inside her head. _Something dangerous is waiting for you there_.

_I know, my TARDIS. That's why I have to go._

The energy swirled inside her mind, repairing mental connections, expanding her brain. She saw herself inside it, going from a dark mess to a clear room with white doors. Behind each one was a part of her essence, each one with a symbol of what was inside.

Her bare feet cherished the warm velvet under them, a red dress –clothes she definitely hadn't been wearing before– adorning her figure.

She stood in front of a door with a golden wolf engraved on it. She opened it and her mind was invaded again with golden swirls.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor was preparing the last minute details of the Delta Wave, trying as best as he could not to think about the human he had pushed out of there.

Rose.

His brilliant, precious Rose.

He didn't have a choice. The Delta Wave wouldn't be ready, not to the length he would like; it was his last shot, and it would end with the life of every being located within its range, which included Daleks and all humanity, no exceptions. Was it selfish from him to want to save one single human life, when the rest of them would perish?

His thoughts were spinning round in circles when the com blinked to life, and the face of the Captain could be seen.

"Rose, how's it going there?" he asked, his smolder never breaking

"She's not here." The Doctor replied

"Bad timing to a toilet trip, with the Dalek attack and all. Tell her to call me when she comes."

"She won't." that caught Jack's attention, but the Doctor kept his gaze to the parts he was assembling "I sent her home."

He took a sharp breath "Is the Delta Wave going to be ready?"

Suddenly the screen went static, and the image of the Emperor of the Daleks showed instead. With grave voice, he spoke.

"TELL HIM, DOC-TOR. TELL YOUR LI-TTLE SOL-DIERS IF THE DEL-TA WAVE WILL BE FI-NI-SHED IN TIME. TELL HIM THAT DES-PITE BE-ING COM-PLETE, IT WON'T DIS-CRI-MI-NATE BE-TWEEN DA-LEKS AND HU-MANS, WI-PING OUT NOT ONE BUT TWO SPECIES."

"We're at the 2002nd century. At this rate there are several human colonies in space, and the human race will survive. But I can't take the risk of leaving you alive. The whole universe would be in danger, and I can't take that risk."

"Doctor." Jack called from the transmission, his signal under the one coming from the Dalek ship but still open "Keep working on that wave, you hear me? And Dalek boy, I have never, and will never, doubt the Doctor. See you in hell." and he cut the transmission.

The Doctor dropped his tools and faced the screen fully "You see, I gotta recognize your plan was clever, it was quite the surprise, but I still have some questions. How did you spread the words Bad Wolf into time and space? And why?"

"I DON'T UN-DERS-TAND."

"The name of the Satellite. It's Bad Wolf. Why did you choose it?"

"THEY WERE CHO-SEN AT HA-ZARD. IT WA-SN'T PART OF OUR DE-SIGNS TO SPREAD IT IN-TO TIME AND SPACE."

"Then what...?"

"E-NOUGH CHAT, DOC-TOR. MY FLEET WILL BE THERE SOON. FA-RE-WELL."

The com switched off, and he was left with his thinking. But before he could dwell on the conversation between the two, he centered his thought to the task in hand, and that was to finish the Wave. Soon the alarms went off, warning him that the security perimeter had been trespassed, and moments later he could feel the floor trembling, meaning they had broken inside.

One by one, he heard every one of his allies die, crying out in pain before being exterminated. He heard Lynda with a y crying out his name before the Daleks broke the three layers of glass of the room she was in. He heard Jack fight against an enemy that couldn't be beaten until the end, protecting the entrance of the Floor 500 until his very last breath.

The Delta wave was finished at the same time the Daleks glided inside the control room.

"Stop this at once!" he demanded, and the Dalek soldiers halted. The screen blinked on again, and showed the Emperor.

"YOUR AR-MY HAS DIED, DOC-TOR. THE EARTH IS BE-ING RE-MO-DE-LA-TED TO BE-COME OUR PA-RA-DISE. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO STOP US?"

"I have this." he pointed at the device before him "The Delta Wave. It's finished; not perfected to your biological signature, but it'll have to do. And I will use it if you don't leave this galaxy."

"YOU WILL KILL MI-LLIONS OF HU-MANS."

The Doctor then smiled wolfishly "And did that stop you? 'Cause I've got nothing else to lose. You wanna bet?"

"SO DO IT." The Emperor challenged "BE-COME WHAT THE DA-LEKS NAMED YOU; THE GREAT EX-TER-MI-NA-TOR. YOU DI-DN'T HAVE E-NOUGH WITH YOUR PEO-PLE, YOU WILL CO-MMIT GE-NO-CI-DE AGAIN."

"I will do it!" he raged, and the leader of the Daleks fell silent

The Doctor stared at the lever before him, cold metal against his bare hands. There he was again, alone, deciding what's best for the sake of the universe and all its inhabitants. He had lost it all, his dear TARDIS, his dear friends, his own species, just because the Daleks wanted it.

It all finished in them, didn't it? They were like weed that stubbornly kept growing every time he tried to erase them from the existence. He had committed genocide so many times against them, but it seemed he was clear of all these past intents, as they kept sprouting in different points of time and space for the same. To destroy.

But there he was, the lever which would initiate the ultimate weapon to destroy them between his hands, but he still couldn't pull it down.

Why was that? Everyone in the range of the Delta wave was already dead, without counting the Daleks and himself, but why didn't he do it? Was he afraid of dying?

He was old, already in his last fourth of his regenerations. He had lived too much, had seen too many deaths to still wanting to be alive, but at the end he was as coward as always.

"WHAT DID YOU DE-CIDE, DOC-TOR? ARE YOU GO-ING TO BE THE KI-LLER OR THE CO-WARD?"

He gripped the lever with more strength, but then let it go. He had promised her. He had promised to find another way instead of killing, and he was about to do just that.

And he wanted to see her again, let her smack him for teleporting her to Powell State with Jackie, maybe let her be mad at him for days and then fly together again. He found he lost his resolution, but he didn't care.

"The coward." He smiled "Always the coward."

Then he heard it. It was soft at first but it grew stronger in every millisecond. He turned around, eyes wide in terror and mouths slackened.

"It can't be…"

Before him, his TARDIS materialized again. The doors flew open and Rose, with her head bowed, stepped outside. The console was glowing behind her and all together it gave her a mystic aura that took his breath away for a second.

"Rose." He spoke, regained his composure "You can't be here. You have to go now! It's dangerous!"

"I won't. I came here to save you, my Doctor." Her voice resonated in the empty room, and when she raised her head and looked at him he paled.

Her eyes were two swirling orbs of gold and brown, her skin was paler and her hair was floating suavely as if she was a goddess awaken from her long slumber. She stared right back at him, and he felt his soul taken apart for her to read it. She caressed something invisible near her waist and he felt a tingling sensation in his head.

She was touching his timeline.

"What…?" he breathed out

"I know why you took me back, but the human me didn't want to leave you here to die. The problem was that I didn't know how to pilot a TARDIS, but then I remembered. The power that is said to grant our inner wishes, even if it's not exactly true."

"What have you done?" he whispered horrified. She let her hand drop and gazed at the Daleks behind her, who still hadn't responded at the sudden arrival.

"I opened the heart of the TARDIS. I looked into her and she looked back. She gave me what I needed to grant my wish, my Doctor. All the signals, the hidden words scattered into time and space, leading us where we ought to be. It wasn't the Daleks. It was me."

The doors of the TARDIS closed slightly and she stood there, powerful and indomitable. The Daleks began beeping uncomfortable.

"I am the Bad Wolf. I created myself."

The Emperor shrieked from the screen "YOU CON-TRO-LLED US. YOU ARE AN A-BO-MI-NA-TION. YOU MUST BE EX-TER-MI-NA-TED! EX-TER-MI-NATE!" he cried and one of the Daleks of the room aimed one blue laser ray against her. She raised her palm and absorbed the impact impassible.

"Your rays don't do anything to me. I can see your timelines, Daleks, and you're a race destined to always lose against someone more powerful. You are tiny."

"THAT'S BLAS-PHE-MY. I AM THE GOD OF DA-LEKS. YOU CAN'T HARM ME, I AM IM-MOR-TAL."

"You are no god, neither immortal. You're just a little grain in the existence of the universe." She grabbed two golden strings connected to them "I take your timelines and erase them."

She cut the strings and the Daleks began to disappear. One of them aimed to the Doctor, but she shot a golden ray before the Dalek could act. The Dalek disintegrated before his eyes.

"And like this, the Time War is ended."

He turned back at her "Stop this, Rose, or you'll worsen it." He pleaded

"Why? I am a caretaker of time. I can take out prejudicial timelines and restore the ones that support the time matrix. I am a bringer of life." Said that, she pointed at a broken timeline and engulfed it with golden light.

The string reconnected again, but this time with much more strength than before. She felt the presence of her dear friend again, lost in the station and utterly confused. She smiled sweetly, she had regained her Captain.

"No one should have this power."

She tilted her head "Why not? The ancient Time Lords ruled on the Vortex before, watching for the time weft and arranging the lost parts. That was the task of your species."

"And look at how they ended. Thirsty of power, believing themselves the controllers of time itself, and extinct. So please Rose," he stood before her and caressed her too hot cheek "Let it go before it ends with you too."

Her golden eyes watered, showing him what he needed most. His Rose was still inside there, fighting. She hadn't been consumed by the Vortex yet. He hadn't noticed he had been holding his breath, looking for a response.

More explosions surrounded them, and he realized it was time to fly away from there. He thought about the Captain lost somewhere in the enormous satellite and clenched his jaw. The station was about to blow up, and he didn't have time to look for him before they ended all dead. He just hoped the disoriented man could find a way out of there before it was too late.

He grabbed Rose's hand and tugged her to the TARDIS, doors wide opened and inviting. As soon they were inside, the doors clasped shut, separating them from the destructive exterior. Her shields were strong, they could cope with the explosion without problems.

He saw her looking at the control screen, tracing circular patterns with her fingers on the engine's surface. Suddenly, the TARDIS erupted alive and transported them to the vortex without complications.

"Rose."

She raised her gaze and looked at her Doctor, the man that had saved her multiple times and gave her life. She wished she wouldn't lose him and there he was, standing in front of her with those fiery blue eyes looking at her. Those eyes that made her remember of skies before a storm.

Then she noticed the heat on her mind was increasing. The 'Bad Wolf' door could not be closed anymore, and golden rays were bursting through without control. She winced as her mind was filled with so many untamable power.

"Doctor." She managed to whine before her knees gave out. He managed to catch her before she hit the floor and supported her weight "I can't hold it… it burns too much."

"I know." He said softly

"Am I going to die?"

His eyes narrowed in hidden fury and cupped her face with his palm "No. I won't let you die on me, do you hear me? So don't give up yet, Rose Tyler."

She rested her head on his hand, cherishing the coolness she could feel coming from him. He anchored her to reality, despite the swirls of her head trying to take her. She received images of what was and what was to come, all the futures she could have, even the ones no allowed.

She tried to suppress the images on her head, as the future was something you have to build step by step, not something to be expected. She had learn that when she was able to see the temporal lines. They were so fragile, yet all together were so strong.

"There's too much darkness in our future, my Doctor. I've seen so many futures ending wrong for both of us…"

"Shh…" he caressed her cheek, cleaning stubborn tears that fell from her golden eyes "Don't look. It will hurt you more, and I have to think about how to take the vortex off you without it killing you in the process."

She closed her eyes and tried to feel him and just him, but it was too difficult with all the racing thoughts, hers and from the other part of her invading her head now. She tried to control the visions but failed, and she gasped when the golden knot that was her mind grew bigger and stronger.

She knew there wasn't too much time left for her. He could see her falling apart, her mind still too weak to support the time itself.

The Doctor watched hopelessly how his dear Rose was drifting away. That stubborn, valiant, sweet human giving her life to save him, and there he was, staring numb at her passing away. He held hundreds of thoughts inside his head, trying to find something that could save her. She was the most amazing human he had ever met, and he wasn't going to let her go just like that.

One feeble idea grazed his mind and he contemplated it. It was risky, and he had to be extremely careful, but it could work. He could force the Vortex out of her and into him, and then returning it to the place it belongs, the heart of the TARDIS. He just needed to think the better way of doing it.

Hands on her forehead? No, it could burn her mind in the process, and the vortex would escape from his grip.

He thought of another way and his ears reddened in the process. It was the better option, but he couldn't do it, much less when she was in this state. But when she whimpered in his arms again, his resolution wavered again.

He cupped her head with both hands and stared deeply in her eyes. She looked back, her eyes hazy, her mouth opened slightly and panting. It would be a breathtaking view if it wasn't for the dying part.

He smiled a little. Who could have thought they would have ended this way? He leaned forward, and when their lips were about to touch, he whispered "I think you need a Doctor."

Then, he closed the space there was between them and kissed her. Her lips were burning, and soon felt the tug of the vortex trying to go inside him. He let it cross his mental defenses and flow inside him, taking it from her. His mind began to fill with golden strings, and he wondered how the hell she had coped with all of them in a human brain.

He saw how the golden swirls were leaving from her eyes, and placed his hands on her temples to access to her mind once again. He could no longer see traces of the vortex inside her, but he was having a really hard time containing them.

"Doctor." Her voice called him, even though she was unconscious in his arms, and his mental image turned around to face her. She was wearing a satin red dress that seemed to wave on its own, and her hair was tied up in a loose bun. In ancient times, he had no doubt the Greeks would have thought she was the goddess Aphrodite in the human realm.

"Rose… how...? How can you have a mental manifestation?"

"I can only do it with the help of Bad Wolf, but this power will soon disappear behind a closed door." She then placed a hand on his arm, and began stroking it with affection "I just wanted to thank you before I lose my memories once again, and to have a chance to say goodbye properly."

"You know?" he raised an eyebrow

She nodded "Now yes, but I will be very confused once I wake up. Will you take care of me once again, my Doctor? Even if you are no longer you?"

"As long as you need me."

She closed her eyes, a smile tugging her lips. Then, she leaned forward and kissed his cheek "Then, I shall go. See you again outside, Doctor."

Then he was thrown outside her mind. He gazed her limp form from above, her breath now deep and her temperature back to normal. Content, he placed her on the floor, cushioning her head with his jacket and made his way back to the control panel and released all the vortex to the core.

He let out a shaky breath and took a grip on the console. He had held it too much time, and he was feeling the beginning of the regeneration process. He tried to hold it, at least until he could explain Rose what was going on.

A soft whimper took him out of his thoughts and looked down, only to see Rose waking up. She blinked away the drowsiness and gazed back at him.

"Doctor…?" she sat up and shook her head

He looked at his hand. It was already glowing. He hadn't much time left.

"I was going to take you to all this amazing places, Rose. To Barcelona –not the city, the planet. They have these dogs with no noses, could you imagine it?"

She tilted her head in confusion. What was going on? She still felt a little numb, and didn't remember anything after opening the TARDIS core at Earth, but it they were together at the moment it meant everything was alright, didn't it? Then why did he sound like he was saying goodbye?

"We were going to do fantastic things. Explore the universe, save worlds… but I guess I'm not allowed to roam anymore."

"What are you…?" she slowly stood up, minding her still wobbly legs

"You see, this process is very tricky, and once it starts it's irreversible. Should've told you about it before, but I didn't know I would leave this soon. I guess I had so much fun I forgot the danger of being myself."

"Doctor, what is…?" she was about to touch his arm, but he quickly made a step back

"Don't touch me, Rose. It's dangerous until it ends."

"Then tell me… why do you sound like you're leaving?"

A pained expression covered his face "'Cause that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm leaving and somebody else will take my place. It still will be me but not at the same time. Does it make sense?"

Tears streamed down her face as she was catching what he tried to explain. She strangled a sob biting her lips, and observed hopelessly how he was saying goodbye.

"One more thing… I need to say it before I go. In every trip, every moment, you were absolutely fantastic, Rose. And you know what?" he grinned, his entire body glowing in golden glitter "So was I."

Then he seemed to explode in a bright column of light and she had to avert her eyes painfully. When the light dimmed, she looked back only to find a stranger blinking, apparently confused. He had brown messy hair and a soft looking face, with a touch of childish curiosity on it, supported by his big brown eyes. The strangest of it all was that he was wearing the same clothes the Doctor wore before, even if he was skinnier, so the jumper was too big for him.

When he noticed her his face lightened up and grinned dumbly at her.

"Hell- oh. That's strange." He ran his tongue on his teeth dumbfounded "New teeth. Oh and face! Totally much more hair than before, and oh so soft… am I ginger?" he looked at her but didn't wait for a reply "And what's this? Sideburns! That or really bad skin…." He then noticed her standing still yet and grinned maniacally "Right-o, where were we? Oh yeah, Barcelona, the planet."

And with that he began toying with the console, leaving her utterly confused.

**Wheew, with that, the first third of the story's finished. Next chapter will be an interlude, then we'll rush into Tenth part.**

**I'm kind of sad to say Nine goodbye. He's my second favourite Doctor, so I'm gonna miss writing his grumpy self. But well, now I have Tenth and his madness to play.**

**Super thanks to margie-me, Maria EduardaB, My fandom is better than yours and everyone who has spent time to review, favourite and/or follow my story. Your support gives me life, and I hope you keep liking this story.**


	21. Interlude 3

**Interlude 3**

"Who are you?"

He turned around to find Rose –amazing, brave, kind Rose– looking at him wary. What was wrong with her? Maybe she had bumped her head when he put her down? But he took extra care! It was not possible, so maybe it was a remnant of the vortex effect?

He rubbed his neck with his new hand and- _Oh. _

How could he possibly forget about it? He had regenerated in front of her, and hadn't even explained a tiny bit of it. She surely was terrified. God job, old Doctor! Fat lot of good you were.

He dropped his hands off the console and walked to where she was standing. She didn't flinch, which was a good thing, but all the trusting on her eyes had been replaced with wariness. He really wanted the warmth of her gaze back. Yeah, that would be his new mission.

"Rose, it's me, the Doctor. I'm sorry I didn't explain you this before, my silly old self was too thick-headed for his own good. Anyway. When I took the vortex out of your head –which was pretty impressive, may I add– my neuronal connections couldn't cope with all this power, so in my body started an ancient process us, the Time Lords, have."

He observed her face for reaction. None so far. "You see, we have this way of cheating death with regenerating all our body cells at incredibly speed, as you saw before! It's like being born again. Although that's a bad comparative, we don't come out of a dark and damp place every time." he wrinkled his nose "That would be disgusting." He frowned and looked back at her "I am rambling, aren't I?"

She nodded. Right! Some progress there "Anyway, I am a new man, new body, new behavior, but I'm still the Doctor in essence, and of course I have my memories intact. Like when I found you inside the TARDIS, disoriented," _and very naked, _he added mentally "and all these adventures we had. Oh, all the running! Except that time we had to hop for our lives! That was a funny day, wasn't it?" and then he started hopping with a silly grin. When he still saw her all quiet and serious, he stopped and his smile dropped.

"It's really me, Rose." He whispered.

She still said nothing, but something sparkled on her eyes. She looked at his face silent, but then she grabbed her hand. He was impressed how much better it felt in this body than in the older one, if it was even possible. Maybe he was more tolerant about touching than his older grumpy self. It wasn't really difficult, now that he thought about it.

Then, in a millisecond, her eyes warmed up, and that was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in all his past incarnations.

"Doctor…?"

"The one and only." And he grinned. How could he not, when Rose was looking at him like that? He was busting energy, and soon began pacing around the console, pulling that level and pushing that button, setting up for their new destination.

But then the pain came and left him breathless. He clutched the controls to get a grip and not to fall, and he heard her running towards him in alarm. He knew she was worried, so if he could just make the incredibly strong headache stop…

"Are you okay?"

"It's the regeneration. It has been so violent that-" he could not continue that sentence as a golden exhale escaped from his lips. Oh nonononono he was losing conscience. Not a good time. Not a good time at all.

But her arms enveloping his new body felt so… if he just…

No. Bad Doctor. Take Rose to safety, then rest. In her arms. No, not there. Somewhere but her arms. What was he thinking?

"I hope the coordinates take us somewhere…"

"What?" she asked alarmed, but the Doctor had already pulled the lever, and the TARDIS started moving again.


	22. A Christmas invasion

**Hello dearies, welcome to the beginning of the second third of this stories! First of all, I'd like to thank to the people who stuck until here. You're the ones that keep me writing! I made myself an Instagram (same name as here) so if you want to see my ugly face or my random quirks, you can pop up and say hi!**

**Part 2: Learning to be oneself**

**Ch. 18. Christmas invasion **

_"__And she disappeared in gold dust."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

It had been months since the TARDIS had disappeared from the dirty alley it had landed, and Jackie couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling of the back of her head. Months without a single message from Rose.

She wasn't all that clever, but she knew that whatever was happening in the future was happening now, and then following this should come a technical explanation, but she had just made up her mind about time travel, don't ask her to explain it, okay?

She just knew that when the groan of the engines could be heard, it meant that her baby girl was coming back home. The lack of news didn't make her give up, and she kept on with her life, expecting that daft alien to pop up. Maybe Christmas made her too sentimental.

Just as she was wrapping up a present, she heard the distinctive _whoosh _of the police box. She dropped the box she was wrapping up and rushed outside, following the sound. Mickey joined her, grease on his hands –probably because of his part-time job as a mechanic- and waited patiently as the blue box materialized.

"I told ya she was alive!" Jackie cheered

Mickey shushed her "I can't hear it right now. Where did it land?"

Then, the ship appeared in mid-air and crashed into a building, then bounced and crashed into another one, just before landing forcefully on the grating. A stranger opened the doors, stumbling and startling them, but when he saw both of them he grinned.

"Jackie! Hello, it's good to see you. Oh, and Mickity Mc Mickey!" he laughed and looked around, a mad grin plastered on his face "Powell State, London, Earth! Look at that amazing skills!" he then frowned "I had to tell both of you something. What was it…?" Mickey opened his mouth, but he shushed him quiet "It's at the end of my tongue. Cmon!" He raised his head suddenly, his grim annoyance replaced with a huge smile "Oh, yes! Merry Christmas!" and then he collapsed on both of them, who did their best to grab him and not fall to the floor

"Oh my god!" a feminine voice came from inside. She stepped out to look at the odd picture, and she was torn between laughing and panicking

"Rose! You're okay!"

"Yeah, we made it. Now could you help me with him? I don't know what's gone wrong." She began to take the stranger's limp limbs from them

Jackie looked around confused "But where's the Doctor?"

"You're looking at him. He's the Doctor." She sighed at their disbelieving stares "Just- help me carry him to my flat, then I tell you everything I know, 'kay?"

Mickey helped her carry him, and they made their way painfully slowly, dragging the Doctor's limp body to the block her foster's mother lived. Jackie opened the door and tried to help them as much as she could until they dropped the unconscious man on her bed as carefully as they could, considering.

She rummaged on her drawers, looking for something comfortable of his size -He was much skinnier than before, maybe a baggy T-shirt...?- but when she turned around, she found Jackie already giving Mickey a pyjamas for him to change the Doctor. She went outside to give them some privacy, and when he finished she was already inside, trying to think of something to do.

He looked so peaceful... It was the second time she'd seen him sleep, the first one at the library, and he had woken up as soon as she approached him. This time... he didn't look as he would wake up anytime soon. And that scared her to bits.

She stroked his wild hair, clearing his new face. She'd had a hard time grasping her mind around the crazy idea of regeneration, but when she felt his hand matching her perfectly, as it always did, she knew. He was her Doctor, maybe more hyper and cheerful than the man he was before, but it was him in essence.

Jackie came inside, a stethoscope in her hands. She offered it to her, commenting that the owner was someone she didn't recall. Jackie then eyed the stranger laying on her Rose's bed. She couldn't deny he was handsome, but she was having a hard time coming around the idea that he was the same grumpy man with big ears and a tendency to be rude.

"So… Who is he?"

Rose looked back at her, sitting beside his lap "I told ya, he's the Doctor."

"But he's different."

"It's sort of his… _thing_ when he dies. 'A Time Lord's way of cheating death', he called it. New face, same man, or that's what he told me. But I don't understand why he is so ill."

She placed the end of the stethoscope on his left side. A steady beat, if a bit slow. She then placed it on the right side and listened carefully, exhaling a breath of relief when she could hear a matching sound.

"Both working." she sighed glad

"What are you talking about?" Jackie asked, standing at the doorway

"He's got two hearts."

She raised an eyebrow "Anything more he has two of?" then she eyed a very obvious place

"Don't be ridiculous." she scoffed "On a more important matter, since when do you have a man's pyjamas at home?"

"It's Howard's." she shrugged it off, waving a hand

She looked at her in bewilderment "The one from the market?"

"He's staying some nights." then she realized what she had just said, and looked at her hopeful "Do you remember?"

"Bits and pieces." she frowned "Seem to do it more lately."

They fell silent, the TV news the only sound filling the flat. Suddenly, a familiar voice could be heard, and that picked her interest. She stood up and walked to the living room, where she saw the face of Harriet Jones on the screen.

"Is that Harriet Jones?" she asked, an incredulous smile on her face

"Yeah. Harriet Jones, Prime Minister. Elected after the incident of 10th Downing Street, she's made a revolution in the Government. They call her rule 'The Golden Age'."

"Good Harriet Jones. Fought some aliens with her, and stopped WW3 from happening."

She looked back at the younger woman "What?"

"The Slitheen attack, mum. She was the one who helped us."

Jackie crossed her arms "Well, she could've mentioned your help. But she took all the credit for herself."

She waved her hand "We don't do it for fame. We just travel, save planets and leave unnoticed… sometimes." She glanced back where the Doctor was resting "At least that's what we did."

"Oh honey…" she tugged her and wrapped her up on her arms, giving her a squeezing hug "Everything's gonna be okay, you'll see. Why don't you go out with Mickey for a bit? To clear your mind." At her dubious look she sighed "I'll call you if he wakes up, okay? Now go!"

Then she pushed her to the door, ignoring her protests, and closed the door on her face. _Okay,_ she thought _It's time to do some Christmas shopping._

.-.-.-.-.-.

The evening with Mickey wasn't so bad. His resentment seemed to be forgotten, and they exchanged stories about how their life had been these days. Well, Rose did most of the talking, what made his brow furrow further the more she talked.

"You just forget about this things, you know? Being on the TARDIS is so… timeless. Things like Christmas and festivities lose their meaning there."

"That's enough!" he yelled, amusement tinting his voice "Can we please stop talking about the TARDIS? The TARDIS this, the TARDIS that… you are making me jealous of a box!"

"Oi! She's not a _box_, she's alive!" she hit him on the arm

"I know, I know. Just- let's just spend Christmas like normal human beings, okay?"

"Okay…" she agreed and they kept walking, the sounds of trumpets filling their silence "But what if he's dyin'?"

"No! Stop right there! One normal Christmas, no TARDIS, no aliens trying to invade us, no Doctor, no life or death. Is that much to ask?"

"Okay." He looked at her unbelievingly "Okay!" she exclaimed, giving up

"Right. Have you thought about what you gonna buy to your mum?"

They turned to the street stalls and looked at different products, but there was something nagging her. She looked around and saw the Santas playing the trumpets. Mickey's babbling faded off as she observed their odd movements. They seemed to move almost mechanically, and they wore weird metal mask on their face.

She frowned. They seemed fixated on their movements, and alert bells began blasting off in her head. She was about to warn Mickey, but the Santa playing the trumpet suddenly began firing.

Chaos was on the street. People began feeling in all directions, screams now muffling the Christmas songs, but none of the Santas seemed to notice. The fired to where they hid, and Rose felt an ill desire to say 'I told you so', but it wasn't the best of times.

"They are after us. We gotta come back! The Doctor's in danger."

He frowned, ducking when the tuba Santa began firing again "And what's the mad connection between crazy firing Santas and the Doctor?"

"Look around you!" she yelled "They're ignoring everyone else, they are just after us. What do we have that they don't? The Doctor. Now let's go!"

She grabbed his hand and rushed forward, leaving their hiding place to take cover behind a big tree. They began firing again, and because of the aggression the tree fell off, crushing one of them in the process. _Time to go!_

When they arrived at the apartment, Rose opened the door as quickly as she could, startling Jackie in the process.

"God, Rose. Don't scare me like this or I'll have a heart attack someday."

"Did someone come!?" Rose blurted, interrupting Jackie. Mickey followed her, looking as agitated as the blonde girl.

"No, there has just been me and the Doctor. Now what's going on?"

"Someone wants the Doctor." She tried to catch her breath as she scanned the room, looking for anything that could've changed. Her eyes immediately rested on the Christmas tree at the corner of the living room "Mum…? Where did you get this tree?"

She looked at it in confusion "It wasn't you?"

"How could that be me? I was with Mickey!"

"Someone ringed the doorbell, and when I turned around there it was. I thought it was a joke of..." She stopped talking as the tree began spinning slightly, the lights blinking on and off and a sweet carol sounding. The tree began gaining speed until it became a saw, and destroyed the table to bits.

Jackie caught her hand and began tugging her to the door "Come on, sweetheart, we've got to escape!"

"I'm not leaving the Doctor!" she let go of her hand and rushed to her bedroom, ignoring the hurt that caused her to look at him so defenceless. She began picking it up, but she soon realized he weighed too much for her, even if he seemed so scrawny. "Mickey! Help me!"

Said man rushed to the door, soon followed by a very distraught Jackie. They began picking him up, but the tree was already blocking their escape room. _Okay, change of plans._

She ran to his leather jacket and picked up his screwdriver, but she noted horrified that she had no idea if there was a setting that could stop this thing, and if there was one, she didn't have time to play guess.

Putting the screwdriver inside his limp hand, she enclosed it with her own hands and began begging him to wake up, tears threatening to fall. The tree destroyed her door, and it was slowly making his way inside. Jackie was screaming, Mickey just stood, too terrified to mutter a word.

It would end soon if she didn't wake him up.

"Save me." She whispered in his ear, and as if it was the secret password, the Doctor sat down, and with a swift movement actioned the screwdriver and destroyed the tree.

"Remote control." He muttered, his voice both unrecognisable and familiar somehow "But who's controlling it?"

He got off the bed, not looking at any of them, he put on a dressing gown and made his way outside, the three humans following silently. From the street, three Santas looked up at them, the remote control still in their hands. The Doctor raised his screwdriver threating them, and after some seconds of tension, they backed off and a blue light enveloped them making them disappear.

"They're just gone!" Mickey snorted "What kind of rubbish were they? I mean, no offense, but there's not much to say if the sound of a screwdriver's gonna scare them like this."

"Pilot fish." He simply answered, looking at the sky. The three of them turned around to look at him

"What?" Rose asked

"They were just pilot fish." The Doctor suddenly made a grunt of pain and doubled over, sweating.

"What's wrong!?" she implored, trying to support his weight

"You woke me up too soon." He wheezed "I'm still regenerating. I'm bursting with energy." Then he exhaled a bright golden cloud from his mouth "The pilot fish could smell it from miles away. Something with unlimited power that could power up their engines for years!" he stumbled forward, and Jackie was the one who caught him

"My head!" he gripped his jaw "I'm having a neuron implosion "I need-"

"Oh, Oh! What do you need!? Tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"I need-"

"Painkillers? Aspirin? Codeine? Paracetamol? Oh, I dunno, Pepto-Bismol?"

"I need..." simply puffed, trying very hard to speak

"Liquid paraffin? Vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E?"

"I need-"

"No, is it food? Something simple! A hot bowl of soup? Nice bowl of soup? Soup and a sandwich? Soup and a lil' ham sandwitch?"

"I need you to shut up!"

She glared at him when he continued to pant "Well, he hasn't changed that much, has he?" then he shouted in pain and leaned forward. All of them tried to aid him, helping him sit on the floor.

"We don't have much time. If there's pilot fish then- why is there an apple in my dressing gown?" he looked at it strangely, as if it had committed a sin.

"It's Howard's, sorry."

"He keeps apples in his dressing gown?"

"He gets hungry…"

He turned the apple in his fingers, a frown on his face "What, he gets hungry in his sleep?"

"Sometimes." Jackie shrugged her shoulders

Then he shouted again, dropping the fruit in pain. "Brain- collapsing." He grasped Rose's knee and looked at her intently "The pilot fish. The pilot fish mean- there's somethi-" She nodded, encouraging him to continue "Something big's coming."

Then he collapsed, leaving them to drag him again to the partially destroyed room. Rose placed the comforter on top of him and cleaned the sweat of his forehead, the napkin growing hot rapidly. She took the stethoscope and checked his hearts again, and hers dropped when she could only hear one of them working.

Jackie called her from the hole that was before her door "They're saying something of the whatsit satellite on TV. Maybe you should watch it." At her unresponsive form, she sighed "I'll take care of him in the meantime. You go watch the TV, you'll understand it better than I."

She let her take her to the living room, her thoughts still on her bedroom, but she watched as the director of the project gave some declarations, quite fidgety if she had a say on it. He announced they would broadcast the images received from Guinevere One.

What she saw later… well she clearly didn't expect it, and she was sure no one else did. On every screen of the world, there was a bony face of an alien, screaming something in a language she didn't understand, but it was pretty obvious what he meant.

When the transmission was cut, hell broke loose. Every channel was broadcasting the news, speculating about the origin and the reason of the connection, wondering whether it was a prank or not.

Rose asked Mickey to hack again into UNIT database, having a hunch. If the transmission was true, they'd be working on it. The man began working as Rose listened to the news attentive, waiting for some news about the incident.

"You were right." Mickey called back, and she stood behind him, staring at the screen "Look at this, this is a spaceship approaching Earth. That must be the origin of that connection."

"They must be the 'Something big's coming' the Doctor was talking about."

Mickey agreed "They must be. It looks that it's coming at great speed. See-" he couldn't finish the sentence, as the face of four aliens popped up again, shouting and threatening them, before the signal cut again.

Rose frowned "What I don't get is why I don't understand it."

"They're alien, Rose. They speak alien, not English."

"I know." She glared at him "But the TARDIS has this translation camp that, to put it simply, gets into your head and translates every language so you can understand it. But now it's not working."

"Could be related to the fella now sleeping in your bed?"

Her face fell "Must be. They've always have this special connection, I wouldn't be surprised if when he feels badly, she does too."

She stood up and walked to the doorframe again, looking at how his chest raised and dropped quite forcefully. She knew he had followed her, but she didn't quit his eyes off the alien.

"What if… He wouldn't let this happen at this extent, he would've already shared at least three theories by now. But what if… what if he doesn't wake up? What if he dies?" she looked up at him, letting her tears fall freely "What'll I do without him?"

She let him hug her, and she sobbed on his jumper, leaving it wet.

"You really love him, don't you?"

She didn't say anything, which in his dictionary meant he was right. He realized he didn't have a chance against that. He ran his fingers through her hair, trying to calm her down, and when her sobs stopped, he gently pushed away and cleaned her tear-stained face.

"Don't worry babe. He'll wake up when the situation is critic and he'll save the world, as always. That show-off alien git." He mumbled next "Now let's look at the news, yeah? Maybe we find something that'll help us."

She nodded and let him lead her to the living room, emotionally drained.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Dawn came, and the Doctor had no signs of improvement. They hadn't received any more messages of the alien ship, but the ship was getting closer, almost at the limit of the atmosphere.

Rose managed to get one hour of sleep, but with the tension in the air, she couldn't get the rest she needed. She kept looking at the laptop screen, looking for updates or thinking about the threat the Sycorax –that was the aliens' name- gave them hours ago.

She knew UNIT had given an answer, but she couldn't access to it. Well, she supposed it was something like 'We won't surrender without a fight' or 'We're peaceful, but we're also armed'. She had to control her urge to roll her eyes.

The long-awaited message of the Sycorax came, but it was strange, just one of them waving his hand, a camp of blue energy surrounding it. She stared at it confused, but soon heard cries outside. Rose and Mickey looked at each other and went out.

What they saw made their blood run cold. People were walking like zombies, the blue energy around their head, towards upper levels of buildings, ignoring the pleading of their loved ones who seemed to be awake. When they reached the roof, they stood on the edge of the building and stopped, looking at the horizon.

"Let's go back, Mickey. Maybe I can scan them with the screwdriver and see what's going on."

He frowned "But you didn't even know how to knock out the tree, how are you going to scan 'em?"

"I don't know! But is there something else we can do?" she nodded "I'll find a way."

They made their way back to the flat and Rose began her search for the damn sonic. It'd been knocked out with the pilot fish thing, and she was having a hard time finding it. When she finally reached the cold tool from under the bed, the voice of Harriet Jones came from the TV. She rushed to the living room and sat down on the couch, listening what she had to say.

"… I know you expected the Queen to give the speech, but she's at the roof, along with the rest of the royal family. I know you're scared, and it seems like the end of the world, but as your Prime Minister, I ask you not to give up." She looked directly at the camera "Have faith, as I assure you we will make it pass this madness. Stay strong."

She then let go of the papers on her hands and clasped her hands together "One more thing before I go, I have a message for the Doctor." Rose sat straight, her whole attention on the screen "Doctor, if you're here on Earth, please contact UNIT. Your assistance is needed. Please Doctor, help us. We don't know what to do, we need you. Please, come Doctor."

The speech ended, and Rose stood up abruptly.

"Where 'ya goin'?" Mickey asked, confused

"To the TARDIS. Maybe the Doctor isn't awake, but I'm here, and I can help."

"Are you nuts!? You're going to get yourself killed!"

"It's not the first time I've confronted an alien trying to kill me, and I've managed so far. Come on! Right now, I'm the only one with some alien experience who can help." She walked to the door, but eyed the prone body of the Doctor "Help me carrying him to the TARDIS, I don't want him to be left alone. Mum! Gather things, we're going."

"Where to?" she stepped out of the kitchen, a kettle whistling

"The TARDIS."

"Okay, let me just-" she rushed inside the kitchen again, and they could hear her rummaging things.

Mickey grabbed the Doctor from one side and Rose from the other, and both of them dragged him to the ship. She opened the door, and she teared up when she saw the control room so dark and unresponsive.

They placed the Time Lord on the floor and began helping Jackie with the things she carried. She closed the door, but when Rose opened it again, they were no longer in Powell state, but in a big dark room, and in front of them stood a whole colony of Sycorax.

"Whoa!" she yelped. Hearing her cry, Mickey hurried outside, knocking a thermos of tea in the process.

One of the Sycorax caught her and dragged her forcefully. Mickey ran back to the TARDIS, but he was too slow and was caught too, only accomplishing to close the door. They were pushed into the centre of the room, the TARDIS still visible, and when they let go of her, she found herself inside an embrace from a very shaken Harriet Jones.

"Is the Doctor with you?" she whispered in her ear

She grimaced on her shoulder "He can't help us this time." She held her gaze with what she assumed was the leader of the alien ship "We're on our own right now."

She stepped forward just as the leader began speaking. She still didn't understand a thing.

Harriet's assistant translated "_The yellow girl. She has the clever blue box. Therefore, she speaks for your planet._"

"But she can't." Harriet shook her head

"Yeah I can."

"Don't you dare." Mickey warned behind her. Rose glanced at him sideways.

"Someone's gotta be the Doctor when he can't."

The Prime Minister reached for her arm, trying to make her step back "But they'll kill you."

"Never stopped him." She said, shrugging her arm. She made some steps forward and the whole room cheered.

"I shall speak to you in claim of the 17th article of the Shadow Proclamation peace agreement." She recalled the Doctor's words solemnly, trying to control the quiver of her voice "You are now threatening a level five planet. If you attack, the Shadow proclamation will judge you and execute you. So leave in peace and anything bad will happen."

The Sycorax looked at her for a moment, then they started laughing. The leader spoke again, and the assistant translated.

"_You are very, very funny_." He frowned "_And now you're going to die_."

"Leave her alone!" Harriet cried and lunged forward, rapidly stopped by one of the guards. The leader kept on talking, walking around her.

"_You think you are clever, with your stolen words._" The leader cheered loudly "_We are the Sycorax, we described the darkness._" She yelped when the alien approached her face to her cheek "_Next to us you are a wailing child. If-_"

"-you don't give the planet as offered, then all of you will be executed, and your people'll be slain." The alien finished, this time in English. Rose frowned.

"Hold on, that's English." The translator looked at him

"He's speaking English." Harriet looked confused

"You're talking English." Rose told him, frowning

"I would never dirty my tongue with your primitive language." He spat

She made one step back, but her face brightened "But that's English." She pointed at him. Then she turned around "Can all of you hear English?"

All of the humans nodded, which only enraged the Sycorax leader more. The assistant confirmed it.

"I speak only Sycoraxic!" he shouted, losing his patience

Rose ignored him "So… if we can hear English it's because it's being translated, which it means it's working, and that means that he…" she turned around to look at the TARDIS, just at the same time the Doctor opened both doors, and looked at them smugly.

"Did you miss me?"

The Sycorax leader swung his electric whip, but the Doctor caught it and tugged, making him lose his grip on it. He walked forwards, and when the alien threatened him with his staff, he grabbed it and broke it in half.

"Give me some rest, will ya? Just can't get the staff" he eyed the aliens in front of him, ready to attack "And you, just wait! I'm busy."

He then turned around and saw Mickey standing beside Rose "Mickey! Hello!" he then turned around and saw the rest of them "And Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North! Oh my god this seems a chapter of 'This is your life'." He grinned ecstatic

"Tea! That's what I needed, a good cup of tea." He grinned at her, and even if she was a bit weirded out for his chipper behaviour, she couldn't stop herself from smiling slightly "A superheated infusion of free radicals and tannins, just the thing for healing synapses."

He then looked at her intently "Now, first things first. Be honest. How do I look?"

"Uhm…" _Hot. _"… Different."

"Good different or bad different?"

"Just… different."

He didn't stop looking at her "Am I… ginger?"

"No, you're sort of… _brown_. But I like it, it suits you."

He grinned "Glad you like it. Oh and you managed so well with the Sycorax thingy, shame they didn't believe you. But hey! Don't go killing me before I die! That hurt! Oh, that's rude, isn't it? Am I rude?" he adverted his gaze "Rude and not ginger."

"I'm sorry." Harriet stepped in "But who is this?"

"He's the Doctor, Harriet." Rose answered

"Yep, it is me."

"But what happened to my Doctor? Is this some sort of title that is passed on."

The new Doctor walked across the room until she stood in front of her "I'm him, I'm literally him. Same man, new face. Well, new everything." He ended with a cocky smile

"But you can't be."

"Harriet Jones. We were trapped in 10th Downing Street, and the thing that scared you wasn't the aliens, wasn't the war, it was the thought of your mother being on her own."

"Oh my god…"

"Did you win the elections?"

At that she grinned "Landslide majority."

"If I might interrupt," the leader of the Sycorax spoke again

"Oh, yes, sorry, there you were." He paced on his two feet

"Who exactly are you?"

"Well, that's the question-"

"I demand to know who you are!"

"I don't know!" he replied mockingly, slightly annoyed to be interrupted. Rude and not ginger, that was him now "You see, that's the thing. I'm the Doctor, but beyond that I- I just don't know. I literally do not know who I am."

He put his hands inside the pockets of his nightgown "Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy?" he then winked at Rose, who was looking amused at him "Wild misery? Life console? Left handed, right handed, a fighter, a coward, a traitor, a liar, a nervous wreck- I mean judging by the evidence I'd say I have quite a gob…" he looked beside him and grinned "Aaand how am I going to react when I see _this_?" he pointed at the control device "A great, big, threatening button."

He laughed and climbed up the stairs, the rest of them following him "A great, big, threatening button that must not be pressed under any circumstances, am I right? Let me guess, it's like some sort of control matrix? Hold on what's feeding it?" he put one finger inside and licked it, making Rose cringe "Human blood. A positive with an aftertaste of iron. Bleugh."

He cleaned his hand on the nightgown "But that means… blood control- Blood control! Oh I haven't seen this for years!" he grinned stupidly "You're controlling all the A positives. What leaves us with a big stinking problem, because I don't know who I am, this early in my new body I don't know which lines not to cross, and when I see a great big threatening button I want to do this!"

He pressed the button. All of them tried to stop him, but it was too late. They waited, but anything happened.

"What do you think, bug fella? Did I kill them?"

"We allow them to live."

At that he laughed sarcastically "_Allow_? You know what blood control is?" he looked at the humans "It's like hypnosis, makes you move like a chicken or make you believe you're a chair –it scares your pants off, but nothing else. You can't hypnotise people to their deaths, the survivor instincts kick in. "

"Blood control is one form of conquest. I can summon my warriors and take this world by force."

"Well, yeah, you could. Of course you could. But why? Look at these people, these human beings. Consider their potential. From the day they were born into the planet and blindly stepped into the sun… there is more to see that can never be seen, more to do that- No, hold on." He frowned "Sorry, that's the Lion King. But the point still stands. Leave them alone!"

The Sycorax leader stood impassive "Or what?"

"Or…" He grabbed a sword and ran in front of the TARDIS "I challenge you!"

All Sycorax laughed.

"You plan to defeat me? I am the strongest Warrior of this ship."

"Yes, I do. A duel for the sake of the planet, it's still irrigated in your customs, isn't it? The duel for honour."

The alien grabbed another sword "Then, prepare to die, Doctor."

He swung the sword forward and the Doctor barely managed to block it. How he thought a duel was a good idea after almost dying, Rose had no idea. He was losing his footing against the strong blows of his adversary, and both of them soon stepped outside the spaceship, in one of the wings.

The Doctor stumbled, and the alien took this chance to attack him. He cut his wrist, making the hand grabbing the sword fall outside. The human gasped, but the Doctor stood too composed for losing a limb.

"Now you're dead, Doctor."

"You know what kind of man I am?" he asked, ignoring his threat "I'm a lucky man. Because, yeah, you've cut my hand off, but I happen to be in the first fifteen hours of the regeneration process. I'm bursting with energy! And that lets me do this." all of them stared as golden light surrounded his right arm and his hand was regrown "And you know what else makes me a lucky man? This hand is a fighter hand!"

He stole his second sword and, as if it was a completely different man, he began striking blows to the Sycorax leader, quickly gaining advantage over him. Soon it was the Sycorax who was leaning at the ship's edge; the Doctor pointing the sword at him, long lost the playfulness of before.

"Leave this planet as soon as possible and never come back. I'm giving you a chance to escape, take it and spread the word around, whatever creature that you see, that the Earth is defended. Did you understand?" the leader nodded "Good."

He dropped the sword and walked where his amazing pink and yellow human was waiting for him. Wait, she wasn't his. She owns herself, why would he- never mind. She opened her arms and hugged him, laughing on his chest. After some seconds, and remembering they should go back to London, he let her go and placed an arm on her shoulders, strangely craving her touch. _Must be the regeneration aftermath_, he thought.

He heard noise behind him, and he sombrely realized what was going on. Grabbing something from the pocket of his nightgown –wait, what was a satsuma doing in there?- and threw it to the control button, which, as he guessed, opened a section of the outside of the ship, and the alien fell off.

"No second chances." He added infuriated "I'm that kind of man."

The Doctor lead them to the TARDIS and they reach her at the same time they were transmatted by the Sycorax. They watched them go, but Rose heard a phone ringing. Turning around, she saw Harriet Jones walking to his PA. She creeped closer, eavesdropping their conversation.

"Torchwood is ready. What do we do?"

Harriet seemed to hesitate, but squared her shoulders "Give them the order to blow them up."

"No!" Rose exclaimed, picking the interest of the two humans and the Time Lord talking to Jones "They're fleeing, why would you blow them up?"

"We need to protect ourselves, Rose Tyler. If we don't, who will?"

She crossed her arm at the same time the Doctor reached them "Us, for example. I say we've done a goddamn good job here."

The Doctor's hearts fluttered slightly when she included herself in the 'Save the world again' squad. What the hell was happening to him? The regeneration must've gone pretty badly.

"You're not always there to protect us. We almost couldn't reach you this time, who tells us we can contact you next time?"

The Doctor chose this moment to intervene "Well, we can give you Rose's number. Universal roaming, and she carries with her always. If something happens, you just gives us a call and we come. But don't do this, Harriet Jones, Prime Minister. Don't make me regret my decision, don't be the real monster."

She looked torn between what she thought was her obligation and what she really wanted to do. The assistant looked at them and the phone alternatively, and when he received a new message, he spoke up "They're going to be out of reach soon."

Harriet looked at the Doctor and sighed, a high weight lifting off her shoulders "Stop them. We will let them go."

Rose let out the air she was holding up and smiled. She hugged her and promptly gave her her phone number. When they finished giving their farewells, she interlaced her fingers with the Doctor's fighting hand and both of them (and Mickey) walked towards the TARDIS, leaving the damp street of London to their new destination.

**I know the Sycorax ship part is heavily based in canon, but I couldn't make myself change it. The reference to the Lion King was brilliant. From now on you'll see much more changes (as you can see here) so things will change from canon (I'll still try to get all the epic sentences, but I don't promise anything) **

**(FF editor bloody gave me a lot of trouble editing, I hope there's no random cut or smth)**


	23. Interlude 4

**I might be a tiny weeny bit late, but it's all LiS' fault (I just ended ch 5 today, and I can feel my puffy eyes, ugh).  
>I have to tell you that I may fall behind my schedule for one or two updates, as my November is a total nightmare, Hell with a capital H, and between tests and lab hours and all the trips from uni to home and viceversa, I'll just have enough time to study and sleep (and I seriously doubt I will). Anyway, I really hope I can update soon.<strong>

**Interlude 4.**

Rose was sitting in Jackie's living room alone. The older woman was at the kitchen preparing a Christmas dinner, and every time she'd offered to help, she'd shoved the offer off, arguing that as she'd saved the whole planet she deserved to just sit and relax for the day.

The Doctor had gone off to the TARDIS to change into proper clothes- he couldn't eat Christmas dinner wearing a dressing gown, and Mickey had gone home with his granny; so that was what left her alone, boringly watching TV.

The front door opened and the Doctor stepped in, wearing a grin on his face. The brown pinstriped suit and the trench coat he wore cased surprisingly well with the red Converse, and the look suited the new him perfectly.

"What do you think?" he extended his arms, showing off

"Mm I like it. Where did you get that coat?"

His long legs strode to the sit in front of them and sat down in front of her, after taking off said coat and lunged it on the sofa "Janis Joplin gave it to me some regenerations ago. Good old Janis, she wasn't in her right mind most of the time but, Rassilon, her voice was as strong as an earthquake."

She looked bemused "She sounds like the kind of person to befriend you."

He faked to be hurt "And what's that supposed to mean, Rose Tyler?"

"Now, now." Jackie called, carrying a tray full of food "Is anyone gonna help me or do I 'ave to do it on my own?"

The Doctor rushed to help her and the three of them began eating, chatting about meaningless things and the Doctor telling anecdotes from all his years of traveling. When her mother brought up crackers and festive packs, he didn't complain, quite the contrary. He opened one of them and put on a pink crown, laughing when she put on the paper mask.

Her heart warmed up at how at ease he seemed when doing domestic, compared to his other self. He was no longer rough around the edges but charming- even if he was a little rude. But there were some quirks that totally reminded her of the blue-eyed man, and yeah, when he looked at her with those warm eyes she knew oh too well, she felt reassured.

They left Jackie's place hand in hand and walked where the TARDIS was parked. Something white caught her eye and she extended her free hand, letting it fall on it. Her hand immediately felt the dampness and the cold of the snowflake, and when she adverted her eyes upwards, she could see more white spots falling from the night sky.

The Doctor hummed "True snow. That's quite uncommon."

"How come? It's snows every winter here." She raised an eyebrow

"Nah, most of the times they're remnants of burned objects that collide into your atmosphere. But this," he waved his finger, pointing at the sky "This is just frozen water. A good ending for a good day, I guess."

"It's beautiful." She sighed. The Doctor glanced down at her merry expression and let out a small smile, feeling content "What will happen to humans now? I mean, it's the first time we made contact to an alien race that hasn't been covered by the government."

He exhaled "It's a new start, I guess. They hadn't made a proper advance of what's out there since 1969, but after the Sycorax attack, there's no way to cover it up as before. The Earth is starting to get noticed too, with all those satellites and junk."

She watched him as eagerness crept up to his face, fidgeting impatiently as wishing to watch what was going to happen right at that instant. With a warm smile she hugged his side, and he returned the gesture with his arm.

"Let's hurry. We don't want you to catch a cold, do we?"

The streets were in silence as they made their way to the blue box. Once in front of the door, she took out her necklace and opened the door, stepping inside first. She went directly to the kitchen set on making, but the Doctor ushered her to change into her pyjamas.

She found him in the library, sitting in the same position as his older counterpart, a cup of tea between his hands. The coat had been discarded again on the top of the couch, and on top of his legs was the book they've been reading before Gamestation.

He averted his gaze to the door and caught her watching him. With a smile –he seemed to smile much more than before- he patted her side of the couch, and she slowly made her way to his side.

He contemplated her as she poured down tea for herself, added two spoons of sugar and stirred up the beverage.

"I'm sorry." He suddenly spoke up

She tilted her head "What for?"

"For scaring you. For everything you had to put through when I was out. You shouldn't have confronted an entire spaceship of alien warriors all by yourself."

"Doctor, you were out of it, you were _dying_. It's not your fault that I always happen to find trouble wherever I go, is it? Furthermore, you came when we needed the most, so stop apologizing. After all, we saved the world again." She finished, her tongue poking out of her teeth

He ran a hand through his unruly hair and laughed sheepishly "We did, didn't we? The Doctor and Rose Tyler, defenders of the Earth. Hmm I like how that sounds."

They fell in a comfortable silence, both sipping his tea absentmindedly, when a question popped up her mind, and she felt really bad for not having thought about it before.

"Doctor, what happened to Jack?"

She saw him physically cringe at her question. He rubbed a hand on his nape, looking uncomfortable and trying really hard not to look her in the eye. If he did he knew he couldn't be able to lie to her- when did he became like this? Certainly not before the regeneration, did he?

He glanced at her sideways and became aware of his mistake, and he sighed "He's okay. He made it out alive at the end. I suppose he escaped using his vortex manipulator."

"We have to look for him then!"

"We can't."

"Why?"

He shook his head "We just can't take him with us."

She crossed arms and watched expectantly at him, her glare deepening as he avoided to answer. He stared as stubbornly, but when the crossfire escalated to a silent warning of an oncoming Tyler slap, he gave up.

"He changed after what happened at Gamestation. He's become a fixed point in time, and that shouldn't even exist. All my Time Lord instincts scream when he's near me, and that added to the fact I had little time to get us to the vortex, I had to leave him there. Now who knows where he is."

"Was it… was it my fault? Did I do it?"

He looked at her curiously, and a hint of fear in his eyes "What do you remember?"

"Only bits and pieces." She huffed "It seems all my memories are rumpled; it's so frustrating."

"Don't try to remember too much, it could be risky. Bad Wolf was a powerful and dangerous being, but you did what you had to do. Saved Jack, saved _me._ Now, how about we forget all this angst and pick it up where we left of, huh?" he asked, waving the book

She buried all her unanswered questions deep inside her mind, suddenly too tired to think the implications of what could mean, and leaned on his side, letting his corporal heat and his new silky voice –with a tiny bit of Southern accent- lured her to sleep.


	24. New Earth

**I****'****m so, so, so, so sorry for the lateness. November was a literal Hell, and I'm quite surprised I've survived. Exam's have gone well, surprisingly.**

**Here comes this chapter, and I sincerely apologize for any mistakes you may encounter. (This fic is un-beta'd, so if anyone wants to help me, they're welcomed to PM me). Anyway, I hope you like it!**

**Ch 19. New Earth**

_Follow the Bad Wolf_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose wasn't too fond to admit that, when she saw the prone body of the Doctor breathing weakly and only one of his hearts working, it crossed her mind once or twice that she wouldn't be able to see the stars again. Cut her some slack, at that moment the Doctor seemed to be dying.

So when he recovered and they returned to their normal (but not ordinary) dance around the TARDIS console, travelling through the vortex to the unknown, her heart fluttered in content. It wasn't quite at it was before; the Doctor had changed into the humanoid expression of an hyper puppy, but she couldn't stop the fond smile from coming to her face.

The landing was surprisingly smooth, and the Doctor quickly grabbed her hand and tugged her outside. A strong smell of apple received her as she stepped on the grass hill. She looked around mesmerized; the cars flew by, and tall buildings and a clouded sky conformed the city skyline.

The Doctor stood close to her "Welcome to New Earth, in the year five billion and twenty-three. We're at the zenith of the Human expansion toward the stars. Remember the destruction of the Earth?"

"It was our first date." She smiled with her tongue between her teeth

He grinned "Right, we were brilliant, weren't we? Anyway, after their main planet destruction, the human race became nostalgic, and they began looking for a new planet with a similar feel. Then they bumped into here: on Galaxy M87, a planet with similar gravity and atmosphere than the good old Earth, and what do they call it?"

"New Earth."

"Exactly. Now, in front of you lays the city of New New York." He waved his left hand in front of them, showing off "Well, it has been the fifteenth New York since the original, so its name should be New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York, but let's keep it short. Now then, Rose Tyler, what do you think?"

She absorbed the view, a gleeful smile on her face "I love it. Stepping into new planets with new ground beneath my feet, wandering off, ending in trouble…" she stopped "And why does it smell like apples?"

He tightened his grip on her hand, not even trying to conceal his smile "Apple grass."

"Apple grass!" she giggled. At that moment she didn't care the chilly wind was knotting her hair or making her cheeks cold, she just could feel the growing expectations of what they would face there "Travelling with you, I love it."

"Quite right too. Now, Miss Tyler, would you like to accompany me lie on the ground and enjoy the great scenery?"

"Oh yes, Doctor, I would."

They walked downhill and the Doctor took off his trench coat, then lied it on the ground, following shortly. She sat on his side, but he tugged her to lie too, making her rest her head on his arm.

That's another thing she'd noticed. This new Doctor seemed much more open to physical contact than his former self. Before, she had to ignore him stiffing every time they hugged, but this one… oh, this one actually was the one who began the hug. Not that she complained, quite the contrary.

He began to explain facts about the planet they were in, and she felt herself relax by his voice. He began playing with her hair subconsciously as he pointed different buildings, secretively marvelled by how that human still stood by his side after all they'd been through, even a regeneration. He really thought that was going to be what made her change her mind about travelling with him –not a lot of companions could wrap their mind around such an enormous change- but then again, Rose wasn't quite normal, was she?

"Do you know what that building is?" he pointed one white building with a green sign on top of it. He felt her shake her head in negative "The green moon is the universal sign of hospitals. I don't tend to visit hospitals, but then I received this." he took out his psychic paper and showed her the message on it, asking him to come

"Who sent it?" she wondered

"That's the thing, I don't know. That's one of the reasons I wanted to come here, I'm still quite fond of mysteries, myself."

"And the other reason?"

He wiggled his eyebrows "I saw it fitting after my regeneration. New Earth, New Doctor."

She smacked him lightly in his arm, giggling, "You're so full of it." she sat up again and wiggled her fingers to him "Let's go explore? You piqued my curiosity."

He jumped upright and put his coat back on, took her hand in his and led her to the hospital. The main room was bursting with activity, where mostly humans but some other species too where rushing from side to side. He looked down and saw Rose glancing a cat nun with an amused glint in her eyes.

"Don't stare." He mumbled near her ear "Imagine what you look to them, all pink and yellow."

"I can't help but wonder how we went from normal cats to humanoid ones." She wondered amused

He chuckled at that "You know; so many species…"

"So little time…" she finished, stifling her laughter.

Rose kept marching forward, but one of the nuns bumped into her and after some apologizes, she raised her head to see the Doctor already inside one of the lifts. When she reached him, the doors were already closing, and he was only able to remind her which ward was and asking her to meet there.

She went inside another lift, and when the doors closed water suddenly began pouring from the roof, soaking her wet, and moments later she was dried by strong winds that came from all directions. Well, at least she felt clean now.

The doors opened and she stepped into a dark corridor, something she didn't expect. Thinking about the main hall, you would think the upper levels would be as clean and white, and the fact that she couldn't see the Doctor –or anyone, at the matter- around bugged her to no end.

She heard steps from her left and turned around to see a human –or humanish- running towards her. His pale face was marked with strange designs, his attire making her think she was a patient, and he seemed relieved when he saw her "Ms Tyler! Come this way." He grabbed her arm, but she shrugged it off

"How do you know my name? Is the Doctor there?" she asked suspicious

"Come this way!" he grabbed her again, but she pried his sweating hands off her

"No way in hell, mate. Now tell me what's going on!"

The man stopped and looked regretful "I am sorry, Mistress."

Before she could ask again what was going on, he swung his arm and everything turned black.

Her eyelids were heavy and her mind foggy, but she could figure three things out right after waking up. First, never judge a book from its cover, damn, the scrawny man had a swing. Secondly, she was strapped into something, making her stay upright and hurting her wrists in the process; and thirdly, her capturers hadn't realized she had regained consciousness, and they kept talking about what Rose supposed was their evil plan.

"She is ready for the process, Mistress. Chip will act when you say so."

"I'm rather disappointed to what you did to my container, Chip. I told you not to harm her, and here you come carrying the unconscious girl." Wait, that voice…?

"I'm sorry, Mistress."

"Never mind. Soon I'll abandon this skin carcase to a youngest b-"

A soft groan interrupted her banter, and Rose realized it had escaped from her lips. She opened her eyes and blinked to focus on the people before her. As she had guessed, Cassandra… stood? in front of her, with her faithful minion pampering her.

"Cassandra." She hissed "What are you doing here? I thought you died last time we saw you."

The skin trampoline glared at her "You mean when you and the Doctor left me to die, don't you? Doesn't it make you murderers?"

"You killed the Stewart and almost all the passengers, all for money; so don't come to me with this moral talk."

The man, which she assumed was named Chip, answered her "When her skin perished, her brain and beautiful eyes remained. Chip rescued her from being dumped and has taken care of her. Chip moisturizes her, pampers her, strokes her skin…" he said adoringly. Rose winced in disgust.

"Right, too much info. Anyway, didn't all your skin explode? How are you whole again?"

"Chip used skin from her back to reconstruct his Mistress."

She tried to stifle her laughter, but failed "You mean that your face is made from your bu-"

"Shut up, Chip. It doesn't matter, as it was a temporary container. Hiding at the basement has allowed me to gather information about the hospital, and believe me when I say that those cats are hiding something. But the problem is that I can't investigate being as flat as I am now."

"We should tell the Doctor, then. We can help you, Cassandra."

She hissed "Don't you understand it, child? I hate you, yeah, but I hate this man even more. Oh, but now that I have you here, all alone, things are going to be so much easier for me. I can get my revenge _and_ get away from here. How do you people say? I've hit the Jackpot."

Rose's eyes darkened "What are you going to do."

"Oh, dear, don't worry. It'll only hurt for a little bit, well, maybe more. Chip, turn on the psychograft."

"Yes, Mistress." He actioned a lever and voltage ran through her, making her scream. She felt as if a strong wind was blowing directly into her mind, and even though she tried to get a grip on herself, she ended getting flown back into…

The TARDIS console.

She turned around confused. Why was she at the TARDIS? Soon, her ears picked up sounds from the monitor of the console, and when she turned it so she could look at it better, she saw herself looking at her body on a mirror.

"I'm a chav!" her mouth protested, and her voice had a posh accent she was sure she didn't have "Oh, but looking closer… look at those curves." She caressed her hips and shook them, a satisfied look on her face "Of course the Doctor looks at her like that and… oh, has he changed his face?"

Horrified, she rushed to the door to try to open it, but it didn't bulge. She tackled it with all her strength, and heard her voice whimpering from the monitor.

"She's resisting. How can she even resist it?" she punched the door some more and who she assumed was Cassandra occupying her body screamed in frustration "Stop it! God, you're so infuriating even subdued. Moreover, I can't even access to all her memories. I should put a reclamation, that machine is rubbish."

Then her phone started ringing and Cassandra answered it. she was relieved when she heard the voice of the Doctor coming from the speaker, but then felt ashamed when 'Rose' answered him. She totally didn't sound like that.

Cassandra made her way to Ward 26, and Rose took the chance to spin the monitor so it faced the door and sat on the metal grating, waiting patiently for her to join the Doctor. She didn't quite understand what was going on, but now that she knew her ministrations had some effect on the other woman she would gather her strength to make him see what's going on.

Cassandra wouldn't get her way if she had a say about it.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor paced impatiently around the hospital room. Where was Rose? He had called her some time ago, but she should've arrived already. She had to see this.

It was amazing how advanced this hospital was. They were treating diseases which cure would be discovered so many centuries ahead, and they shrugged it off as it was an everyday occurrence.

He caught a glimpse of the blonde woman he was waiting for and grinned. A tiny voice inside his mind whispered that she seemed off, but he ignored it effortlessly.

"Rose! Come see this." he caught her hand –why didn't it feel the same as always?- and showed her the patients resting around them "Look at him. He had Marconi disease, which should provoke him bright red skin and take years to recover from, but he comes here and Zam! A couple hours and he's as fresh as a rose. They used some sort of immunogenic cascade, it's impressive."

He pointed at another man "Oh, and that guy there had Pallidome Pancrosis which should've killed him within ten minutes, but look at him, just chilling there. They are way too advanced, there's something going on."

She seemed to hesitate "Aye, aye c'ptain."

"So that's the thing, what made them advance so quick and so effectively?"

"I can't Adam and Eve it."

The Doctor looked at Rose oddly as she winced in pain "Wha-what's wrong with you? Are you okay?"

"Uh, sure. It's just that I have a little… _headache._ Nothing to worry about."

"Do you want to go back to the TARDIS?"

"No!" she answered too quickly, then winced again "I'm fine."

He shrugged it off "Anyway, everyone here comes and go within a day, no one seems to stay. I've looked to the panels beside the lift –Always look for the maps, Rose- but there are some rooms that are apparently missing. So, what does this hospital lacks of? Apart from the shop, that is. I always love a little shop."

"Intensive care!" she replied excitedly "I knew something was going on in the lower levels." She then looked back at him and gave him a heated look "Aren't you just…"

Then Rose threw herself to him and crashed her lips in his, tangling her fingers in his hair. He closed his eyes instinctively and responded to her heated kiss, his mind still in shock to even think about hugging her.

Suddenly, she jerked backwards, using his chest for support and looked at him with a shocked expression on her face, but it instantly turned flirtatious and her hands began playing with his tie.

"Lift's this way." She left first, not waiting for him to follow.

The Doctor exhaled and ran his fingers through his messy hair, trying to regain his composure and calming his racing hearts "Yep, still got it." he commented, and then followed her path.

Something wasn't right about Rose. It wasn't just her eccentric behavior and the k- yeah, her behavior, but she demonstrated knowledge about things she shouldn't even know of their existence, and then she forgot things like his sonic screwdriver –_his sonic screwdriver!_. Something smelled bad in that hospital, and he dreaded to think about what could've happened to her.

So when she corrected him about trying the installation protocol in order to show the floor where the Intensive care's unit was located he bowed himself to make whatever was possible to regain old Rose.

They climbed down the metallic stairs, and what they found there surprised him –there were thousands of opaque pods glowing with an eerie green light, and he could distinguish some forms inside every one of them. He opened one of them and his hearts stopped for a second –a man stared back at him, oozing pustules on his face and weak arms, and looking too weak.

"It's disgusting. What's this thing?" 'Rose' sneered from behind. How could have he even been fooled by her?

"I'm sorry." He muttered. And he really was. He started feeling a too familiar cold rage resurfacing deep inside him. Who could do such a cruel thing? "I'm so sorry."

He closed the pod and opened another one. In this one, there was a woman inside in the same state as the man before.

"What disease is this?"

"All of them. They had been infected with everything and been kept here."

She turned her head "And what about us?" she suddenly winced but shrugged it off "Are we safe?"

He felt colder every second he spent down there "Yes we are. Just don't touch them." _I don't want anything more happening to her. _He added mentally

He closed the pod again and walked to the railing, 'Rose' following shortly "How many patients are there?"

"They're no patients."

"But they are sick."

"They we born sick. They were meant to be sick. They exist to be sick. Lab rats. No wonder the Intensive Care was occult from the padlocks, this is a human farm." He could no longer keep his anger at bay and began pacing around the dark floor

"Why don't they just… _die_?" _God, please, shut up._

"Plague carriers. They're the last to go."

Then one novice met them, trying to justify their actions as lifesavers instead of killers, calling the infected bodies just flesh, created by them to produce enough antibodies to cure their patients, being the only successful way. The Doctor didn't care.

"These people are alive." He spat

"But think of all the people out there." She added with her soft voice "Healthy and happy because of us."

"If they live because of this, then life is worthless."

"Who are you? Are you investigators?"

"I'm the Doctor, and before these situations I don't need any other form of authority, it ends with me." He answered hardly.

"Just to make sure." 'Rose' popped up from behind and the Doctor had to restrain himself to shout at her to let Rose go "No one else knows this, right?"

"We thought it was best not-"

"Hold on." He interrupted her "I can understand the… _bodies,_ I can understand your vows, but one thing I can't understand is, what have you done to Rose?"

The nun looked at him dumbfounded and stammered "I d-don't know what you mean."

"I am calm, trust me, I'm very, very calm, and the only reason I am very, very calm is because the brain is a delicate thing. What you've done to Rose's head, I want it reversed. She's already in pain, so my patience is running out."

"We haven't done anything."

"I'm perfectly fine." She smiled, but he saw her straining "It's just a tiny little headache."

He didn't even look at her "These people are dying, and Rose would care."

"Uh." She sighed "All right, clever clog." She tugged his tie, dropping her voice so it sounded husky "Smarty pants, lady killer."

"What's happened to you?"

"I knew something was going on in this hospital, and I needed this body and _your_ mind to find out." She winced "But she's not behaving inside here. She keeps pushing and pushing. Ugh, it's frustrating."

"Who are you?" he wondered

She leaned on his ear and whispered "The last human."

"Cassandra!?"

"That's right boy, now smell the perfume."

Before he could be aware, she took a little perfume bottle from her cleavage and drizzled him in the face. He didn't have time to catch himself before the world turned black.

.-.-.-.-.-.

How dare she do that! Rose was fuming inside, well, her head. She had pushed so hard against the door to get out that all her 'body' was hurting. She had managed to regain control of her body once, only to find herself kissing the Doctor. She had been so shocked she had lost her concentration, and Cassandra used the chance to overtake her again.

It was frustrating to hear both of them interacting, at first lightly, but when she saw the darkened looks the Doctor was giving her when Cassandra wasn't paying attention calmed her slightly. The Doctor knew something was off, now it was her task to draw his attention to the issue.

She was deeply touched by his words regarding her feelings about the sick people before them, as she had described exactly what she was feeling. Her heart broke a little when she saw the man looking numbly at them, and then she felt more annoyed when Cassandra kept minding only her own safety.

But when she knocked him down with the sleeping perfume and locked him in a pod for him to die, something in her snapped. She pushed with all her might, and the console's door flew open, letting her regain her senses temporarily. She examined her surroundings, desperately trying to find a way to help him before she got lost again.

The novice was talking to her softly about the deal she was making with Cassandra, but she couldn't care less. She couldn't open the pod in time without the Doctor's screwdriver, which was still in his possession. She noted he was regaining consciousness from the corner of her eye, but a green big... Threatening button was standing in front of her.

Feeling Cassandra pushing her back, she looked back at the Doctor and smiled, her tongue pocking out of her teeth. His eyes widened and she pushed down the button, letting Cassandra take control again, who stumbled backwards in pain.

She observed amused as the Doctor was liberated, but got worried when all the pads flew open as well, freeing the sick people in the process. They ran to avoid being touched by them, and they arrived to the same room she had woken up before, the Doctor closing it provisionally with his screwdriver.

"Okay." the Doctor twirled his screwdriver in the air and put it inside his pocket "I need you to get out of Rose's body. Now. This psycograft is banned in every developed cultures. You're compressing her to death."

"Oh I would like to, believe me, she's been a total pain to deal with." she spat "But brainy boy, as you can see I have no longer a body to return to, my skin is dead."

"Then keep floating in the air like scattered atoms, see if I care. But I want you out of there now." He threatened her with his screwdriver "Give her back to me."

She could literally see Cassandra's mental gears spinning as she came back with a plan "If you say so. Don't come at me crying after." then Rose felt herself being flung back to her body, stumbled and caught herself before falling.

"Oh my god, I'm a man!" the too familiar accent of Cassandra came from the Doctor's mouth, and she resisted the urge to groan "Yum, so many parts… and hardly used." She grinned, but then blinked in surprise "Oh, he's got two hearts, oh baby it's like I'm beating a samba."

"Cassandra, get out of him."

She mused, totally ignoring her "He's slim, and a little bit foxy." she gave her a lopsided grin that would have sped her heart if the real Doctor had made it.

"Cassandra, I won't repeat it again. Get. Out. Of. Him."

"Don't 'Get out of him' me. Even if you tried to block me, I've been inside your mind. You think it too, you've been looking, you like it." she made emphasis in the last part, and she had to suppress her laughing at seeing the Doctor acting like this.

The door flew open and the sick people began walking towards her. 'The Doctor' made a totally not masculine yelp and hid behind her "What do we do!? The Doctor, what the hell would he do!?"

Ignoring the cowering she/he, she focused in the task in hand. She soon noticed the stairs on the roof, leading to the upper levels. She dragged the trembling Doctor towards it and his/her eyes brightened when she saw the escape way.

"Get out of the way, blondie." Cassandra pushed her aside and began climbing. Huffing, she followed, trying to reason with the human to leave the Doctor's body, but all her words fell in deaf ears.

Something caught her foot and nearly fell off. A cat nun had followed them, and she was shaking her to make her fall.

"It's your fault! Everything we stood for is now crumbled because of you!"

"Oh go play with a ball of string." Cassandra replied sarcastically

Before she could continue, the sick reached her and touched her skin. Pustules and blisters formed instantly in her face, and she lost her grip on the stairs. They began climbing up again, but made a stop when they reached the end of the stairs and a sealed door. They'd left the sick mob behind, but they would reach them soon.

"You! What do we do now?"

She looked ahead of her. The gate didn't have a doorknob or lever to open it "Use the screwdriver to open it!"

She took it out of her pocket as if it was disgusting. Knowing the new passion of the Doctor for eating jam with his fingers, she may have a reason "You mean this thing? And how I'm supposed to do that? I don't know how it works."

"We need the Doctor. He's the only one of us who can open it."

"No, I refuse to go. You push me too hard, and it hurts."

"I won't push you, I promise. But if you want to make it out of here alive we'll have to work together, don't you think?"

"Fine." he/she rolled her eyes and a white aura shot out of his face, reaching her and shutting her out. The Doctor blinked to clear his sight and growled when he saw Cassandra.

"Oh, chav-tastic again." She groaned "Open it!"

"Not until you go away from her."

"We need the Doctor!"

"I order you to leave her!" he yelled, his patience lost

"God you have anger issues. How can she like you?" she muttered before leaving Rose's body again. She blinked and secured her grip on the metal bar

"No matter how difficult is the situation there is no need to shout." Cassandra kept talking, but from the Doctor's body

"Cassandra, get out of him!" she gritted her teeth

"But if I go into your body he simply refuses, he's too rude." She pouted

"I don't care, just do something!"

She grimaced when she came up with an idea "Ugh, I'm so gonna regret this." then the white light abandoned the Doctor's body and Rose was surprised to see she didn't go inside her, but to the first sick of the stairs.

The Doctor was quick to open the door and he helped her to jump to the now open corridor. Before she was able to hug him, Cassandra overtook her body again, but this time it didn't seem the same as always. She felt sad and lonely.

"This is your last warning, Cassandra!"

"It was so lonely." She muttered. The Doctor, surprised at her change of behavior, let her continue "Inside her head. They're so alone. They keep reaching out, just to hold us. All their lives, they've never been touched."

The Doctor took compassion of her and extended his hand, just to remain her what touch was like. She looked at it oddly before clasping her hand in his and standing up. When she was upright, he let go of her hand. It didn't feel right.

"Alright, let's go."

They reached Ward 26, the only place which hadn't been invades by the carriers yet. The Duke's secretary was talking heatedly to the authorities outside, demanding to be freed, alongside the Duke.

The Doctor grabbed her phone and ended the call. Frau Clovis, that was her name, looked at him outraged "What do you think you're doing?"

"I can't let you order them to open the door. If they do, every single disease contained here would spread to the whole planet. Do you want to be responsible of the deaths of a whole planet?"

"What I want is not to die here! What are we supposed to do then, wait for our dismissal?"

"I didn't say I didn't have a plan." He grinned suddenly and began running around the room, grabbing all the intravenous solutions from the patients "Cassandra, make yourself useful and grab as many bags as you can, please."

She complied, and soon they were stacked with all the solutions of the floor. He began strapping the bags to his body, an action that made her raise an eyebrow, but when he opened the doors of the lift and jumped to its roof, she couldn't stop her yelp. God, this man was a nutter.

"Cassandra, come on!"

"You seriously don't expect me to jump."

He frowned "Come on! Stop worrying about surviving and start living!"

She hesitated, thinking in a loop about how many ways she could end up hurt or, most likely, dead; but then she felt some tugging inside of her, not forceful as before, but encouraging. She made up her resolve and leaped forward, shouting in the process, and grabbed the metal chord of the lift, letting her weight carry her down.

The Doctor opened the lift's disinfectant reservoir and emptied every one of the intravenous solutions inside it. When he finished, he opened the roof hatch and looked at her.

"Cassandra, when I say so push that lever down." Then he jumped down

"What are you gonna do? Are you going to kill them?"

He looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, and then opened the lift's doors with his sonic. The carriers turned around when they heard the sound, and began marching towards him.

"Action it now!" he demanded her. She complied, and liquid began pouring from above, soaking him wet. One infected woman touched him, and saw the blisters already disappearing.

"I'm not killing them, that's the way you humans act. I am the Doctor, so that's what I'm gonna do –I'm gonna cure them." He observed as the woman, who was now completely recovered, turned around and began touching other infected people "That's right, now do what you've yearned the most, pass it on, spread it. You see Cassandra? This is the birth of one new race, the New Human. How's the world gonna react? One thing for sure, everything's gonna come out now."

He helped Cassandra get down as the New New York Police Department made their way inside the hospital and guided her to Ward 26 again, where his dying friend was waiting for them. He received them with a content smile, and nodded to them to come closer.

"How are you feeling, old fella?"

_"__Better than before. I have lived so long, Doctor, and I had grown tired of the universe, but your company has showed me to look it anew. There are some things I have still haven't seen, and it's too soon for my demise." _He answered telepathically

"And the message?" he asked, curious

_"__It will have to wait for our third and final encounter. I am very pleased to see you, Doctor, Rose."_ He then teleported, leaving the Doctor with a happy smile on his face. Then he remembered the situation he was in and his eyes darkened.

He turned around and regarded Cassandra a dark look "Now, Cassandra, it's time to go."

"No! I've nowhere to return to!" she implored, panicking

"Everything withers and dies someday, and it's your time to go. You can't stay in Rose's body."

She looked at him devastated, but cries for her made her turn her head. Chip had survived, and was now running towards her oblivious of her dark thoughts and creepy smile.

"It looks like we have a volunteer."

"Cassandra don't you dare."

She ignored him and shot herself out of Rose, who stumbled, and the Doctor managed to catch her. She looked up and was relieved when he saw the familiar warmth looking back at him.

"Hello." She smiled

"Hello." He replied, not quite being able to contain his joy. She lost her footing and he tensed his grip around her "Whoa, are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'm just tired of pushing, I s'ppose."

He regarded her a curious look "I can't even comprehend how you were able to do that. How do you feel about some tests when we return to the TARDIS?"

"Sure."

A soft gasp interrupted them, and they both looked back at Chip, now possessed by Cassandra.

"Oh." Then she fell, and the Doctor and Rose rushed to catch her before her head hit the floor "Poor Chip, he's only a half-life and he has had such an stressful day… his heart is rushing like mad, he's not gonna last much more."

"Cassandra, what can we do to help?" Rose asked her

"You can't do anything. The Doctor was right, my time has ended. the world has changed so much, and there is no longer place for people like me or Chip. It's my time to go. But… Doctor, can I ask for something?"

A blue police phone box appeared in front of a flat, joyous laughter coming from inside. A cloaked figure stepped out and went inside, while two other figures chose to stay behind, watching him from the doorway.

The cloaked man walked to one blonde woman and grabbed her arm. She looked at him startled, but managed to maintain her composure, as she was the main host of the party.

"May I help you?" she asked to the strange man

"No, it's just… I just wanted to tell you that you are so beautiful."

She blinked confused, but then smiled, deeply touched "Thank you."

Then he suddenly collapsed, and she and some of the guests rushed to help him. No one noticed how the man standing near the blue box tightened his grip on the girl's hand, who rested her head in his shoulder. No one he noticed how he tugged her hand, and both of them walked inside the apparently little place.

No one noticed how the Police Phone Box disappeared to never come back.


	25. Interlude 5

**Interlude 5. Christmas special**

**Okay, this interlude was totally unplanned, but I have less than 1000 words written down of the next chapter, and I was freaking out when Aida, one friend of mine (thank Aida, when she makes synapses, they're worth it) said: 'Hey, why don't you yolo and write a Christmas drabble special?'.**

**This is me, yolo-ing it.**

**Well, next chapter's going to come out next year, so I take now the opportunity to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a really happy new year, and I hope we stick together in the year to come.**

**I'm getting sappy. Let's go to the story!**

Snowflakes fell slowly from the dark sky, dancing with the cold wind before reaching the snow-covered floor and resting there, forming part of a breath-taking view. There was white everywhere Rose looked, composing what she thought was the impersonation of winter itself.

Spruces wore golden and silver orbs, and tiny lights twinkled from between their leafs, illuminating the path. She exhaled amazed, and she could see her own breath.

"Do you like it?" the Doctor mumbled right behind her, taking her out of her stupor. She turned around and tilted her face to meet his eyes that were carefully looking at her, watching her every movement with intensity.

"I love it." she placed her hands on his chest, and she could feel the soft beating of his hearts on her fingertips. She cocked her head when he didn't immediately start rambling about where they were, choosing to stay silent.

She raised a hand to his face and placed on his cheek, concerned "Are you okay?" he closed his eyes and rested his head on her palm. His lips moved, but she couldn't make sense of what he was saying. However, before she could ask, he repeated it louder.

"For a moment… when I noticed that Cassandra had possessed you, for a moment I thought I had lost you. And I was afraid it was true. I know everything turned out well, and I-I've tried to leave it behind, I've really tried. But I can't. Not yet."

He rose his head and rested his forehead in hers, and circled his arms in hers to feel her, to reassure himself he was still with him.

"I'm still here, you know?" and yet again, she managed to guess what he needed to hear most, something that didn't ever cease to amaze him

"But for how long?" he clenched his fists against her back "Rose, my life is really dangerous; I've already put you in so many dangerous situations, and sometimes I don't even know how we've managed to escape relatively unharmed.

Yeah, you're still here, but for how long? How long is it going to take before you aren't able to come back to me? Before you don't _want _to come back to me?"

"Doctor." She called him, but he didn't move "Doctor, look at me." When he opened his eyes, she looked at him seriously "Listen to me. I know the extra baggage that comes with you, I knew when I grabbed your hand, and I still know. Don't ever fault yourself for everything that happens to me because _it's not your fault._ It never was, it never will be."

"Rose-."

"No." she interrupted him softly "It's my time to speak now. I don't care what may be in our way, but be sure I'll make whatever is in my power to return to you." she then smiled mischievously "I've already done it, don't I?"

He tightened his grip on her and buried his head on her shoulder. She encircled his neck and began stroking delicately his nape in circular patterns, knowing that he needed the reassurance but wouldn't admit it.

"I have lost so many people… And I'm tired of being alone, Rose. So many people have told me they'll travel with me forever, but they end up leaving in the end. Or worse, they end up trapped or dead."

"You're not alone. You have the TARDIS, and you have me now. You found me, and I'm not gonna leave you, no matter what. Let them try to separate us; we just have to show them that they really can't."

He held her for far longer that was acceptable for two friends, but he didn't care at the moment. It wasn't as if they were simple friends anymore, were they? He was too afraid to put a name to the warmth he felt inside him, or the fact that her words were enough to soothe the emptiness in his mind. But now? He just needed to feel her against him.

Before he got lost in his thoughts of her, he broke the hug and took one step back, grabbing one of her hands in the process. If she was startled, she didn't voice it; and for the glint in her eyes, he could bet his next regeneration she found his outburst amusing.

"Well, Rose Tyler, do you want me to tell you about the planet or not?" he mocked irritation

"Don't let me stop you." she grinned with her inimitable smile

"This is the planet Chr-Isma's-"

"Christmas?"

"_Chr-Isma's._ And I was the rude one." He commented with a raised eyebrow "Anyway, this planet was discovered by a British colony on Christmas eve, and noting the scenery, they decided to name it accordingly. Moreover, in this planet it snows all the 693 days that lasts its rotation around its star, and the decorations from the trees are natural, so I suppose it fits."

"So you've taken me to another Christmas so soon? How domestic."

He looked at her horrified "No. Just don't." she began to laugh "Stop it. No."

When she calmed down, she tugged his hand and walked the snowy path, making him follow her "Let's go for a walk, then. This place is too beautiful to stand still."

"Quite right too." He let himself relax and followed her

The couple followed the natural path made by the trees, their chatter the only thing that disturbed the calm of the night. One pair of eyes looked at them from the distance, a sad smile on the stranger's face. The person didn't make himself noticed, it wasn't his place, nor the time.

Looking at them until they were out of his sight, the dark figure turned around and left, leaving the snowy planet undisturbed.

**I don't know what happened. As I would say in my mother language, 'yokse tete' (don't use this expression, it's not proper Spanish. People will look at you badly if you do). Well, I suppose I needed fluff. I apologize if someone gets diabetes for this.**


	26. Tooth and claw

**Sorry it's a bit late, but I got a little frustrated with Queen Victoria. I swear she has a sitck up through her ass. To make it up to you, I bring you a longer episode *insert clapping here*. I don't know if I'll be able to write next chapter in time, with finals and all that stuff, but I'll do my best.  
>I hope you like the chapter!<strong>

**Ch. 20. Tooth and claw **

_"__Oh but you are, more now than ever. You're the one who's gonna save the universe, after all."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose woke up with the sound of music coming from the outside. She put on her gown and stepped out of her room, wandering around to find the source of it.

She soon made her way to the console room, and was amused when she could only see the Doctor's feet from under the central column, moving at the rhythm of the music, and she could hear his voice from under it, humming along.

"Ian Dury, really? I knew you were a punk at heart." she grinned

"Rose!" he rolled out of the console "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Nah, I was going to get up soon, anyway. But you seem to have fun." she teased

He stood and patted his white shirt. Surprisingly, he didn't have a stain on it. His jacket rested on the captain's seat, neatly folded, but his trench coat was where it always was –dangling on the coral next to the door.

"Oh, you know, it's good to be a lunatic." He grinned wolfishly

"So that's what you are: you're just a big old punk with a bit of rockability thrown in. I like it."

He wiggled his eyebrows "You wanna see them?"

"Ian Dury and the Blockheads? Really?"

"That's what a time machine is for. We can visit the Trafalgar battle, the first antigravity Olympics, the Roman conquest on the Mediterranean Sea... Or we could go to Sheffieldin, 21st November of 1979, Earth, where Ian Dury is having one of his best concerts. Your choice." He shrugged it off

She pretended to meditate it, but she couldn't repress her playful smile for long "I'm gonna get changed, then. We have a concert to attend to."

"Sheffieldin, 1979, it is! I'm going to start setting up the coordinates, so when you come we're ready to land."

She rushed to her room, grabbed some clean clothes and stepped into the bathroom. She didn't have to wash her hair, as she had done so yesterday when she had to clean off that nasty green grime the Bolusians had thrown them when they escaped from prison. She shuddered, remembering it.

After a short shower, she put on a pink T-shirt and a jean dungaree with a skirt the TARDIS provided, matched with black sturdy boots and dark leggings. She'd been in some concerts, and she was really attached with her two feet…

At least she thought she'd been in a concert once in her life.

She walked to the console, her wooden hills clicking with the metal floor in every step she took. The Doctor was resting on the console, his arms crossed and giving a laidback look. She then noticed something that was different before and smirked.

"Have you combed your hair?"

He didn't even look ashamed "Well, of course, Rose. We're going to a concert!" he then admired her clothing –only her clothing, he swore "I see you're right into the seventies."

"Will this do?"

"Of course! The seventies were a strange thing –someone could wear a sack of potatoes and would even receive compliments. And let's not talk about the eighties and all that _glitter _and _pads._" he took his place on the console and grinned madly "Now hold on tight."

The TARDIS took off, and Rose helped him drive following every instruction he gave her. He hit the console with a hammer and said time machine shuddered, making the two of them lose their footing and falling on the grating. They looked at one another and began laughing maniacally.

He helped her to get up and rushed to the door.

"1979, hell of a year! China invades Vietnam. 'The Muppet Movie' - love that film. Margaret Thatcher, urgh." He made a face to make her laugh, and put on his trench coat "Skylab falls to Earth, with a little help from me. Nearly took off my thumb."

He opened the door and Rose stepped out, losing her smile when she saw some kind of guards wearing a red uniform pointing their rifles at them. The Doctor, unaware, continued talking.

"And I like my thumb. I need my thumb. I'm very attached to..." he finally noticed they were surrounded, and his voice died down "… my thumb."

They both raised their hands in surrender and the Doctor groaned "… 1879. Same difference."

"You will explain your presence, and the nakedness of this girl." The head guard demanded. The Doctor's eyes brightened when he noticed his strong accent

"Are we in Scotland?" he asked in a flawless Scottish accent, what made Rose raise an eyebrow. Apparently, something in his statement made the guard's face harden.

"How can you be ignorant of that?"

"Oh, I'm dazed and confused." He shrugged it off. Then he pointed at her "I've been chasing this wee naked child over hill and over dale. Isn't that right, you... tim'rous beastie?"

"Huh? Yeah, 'course." She answered rapidly. The Doctor looked back at her amused

"I'm Doctor James McCrimmon, from the township of... er... Balamory." He took his physic paper and showed it to him "Here are my credentials. As you can see, a Doctor from the University of Edinburgh."

The soldier took the psychic paper with suspicion, still pointing the gun at him, and studied its content for a while. As the physician had said, everything seemed correct, but something about them ticked him off. Maybe it was the way both of them seemed to be enjoying the situation they were in.

An imperious female voice came from the carriage they were escorting "Let them approach."

"But Your Ma-"

"Do you dare defy me?" she confronted him, still hidden behind the red velvet curtains

"Of course not, your highness." He motioned them to step forward, not even trying to hide his glare "Lower your head to the presence of Her Majesty, the Queen Victoria." He removed the curtain, and the stern glare and hard face regarded them.

They bowed in front of her, Rose slightly afraid of what the excitable guard could do if they didn't, but glanced to the side to see the Doctor trying to supress his grin.

"Rose Tyler, Ma'am. And my apologies… for being so naked." She feigned shame, and for the look the Doctor she didn't succeed.

"I have five daughters, this is nothing to me." She answered nonchalant "But you, Doctor. Show me those credentials." She snatched the psychic paper and read at whatever it was written "It is unbelievable! It clearly states here that you have been appointed by Lord Provost as my protector."

"Does it? Yes it does, good. Good. Uhm, let me ask, why is Your Majesty travelling by road when you could catch the train?"

"A tree on the line."

"An accident?" Rose pondered

"I am the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, everything around me tends to be planned."

"An assassination attempt." The Doctor stated

"So there are people trying to kill you?" the blonde girl asked, shocked with her seemingly acceptance of the fact

"I'd rather used to stand down the barrel of a gun."

The guard chose that moment to change the subject "Sir Robert McLeish lives about ten miles from here. We can rest there tonight and reach Aberdeen tomorrow."

The Queen nodded "This Doctor and his… timorous beastie will come with us."

"Yes, ma'am. We better get movin', it's almost nightfall."

"Indeed. And there are stories of wolves in these paths." Rose shuddered at the comment "Beautiful tales; too fantastic, but good to unfreeze the blood, don't you think?" she then ordered her coachman to drive on.

They walked behind the carriage in silence, leaving the TARDIS behind. The wind whipped their hair, and the Doctor seemed to be more upset than she was by that fact.

"You see, when someone says 'Assassination attempt', you think of people like Kennedy and stuff, but not her."

"She's had five attempts failed 'till now. I have to give her credit for that. And can I say something?" the Doctor commented

"What?"

"We've just met Queen Victoria." He stated amused

"I know!" she squealed, "She was just sitting there with a stoic face, like in the stamps. And did you hear her voice? I wanted to hear her say, 'We are not amused'. Bet you five quid I can get her to say it." she challenged

"Taking that bet would be an abuse of my responsibilities as a traveller in time..."

"Ten quid?"

"Done."

Half an hour later, they reached the State. It was too dark for Rose's tastes, the bushes almost withering, and the bald servants were just too creepy for her liking. A handsome man in his mid-thirties stepped out of the main entrance and bowed to the Queen.

"Sir Robert." She acknowledged him "My apologies for the emergency. And how is lady Isobel?"

He suddenly seemed very fidgety, something that quipped the time travellers' interest "She's indisposed, I'm afraid. She's gone to Edinburgh for the season, and… she's taken the cook with 'er, the kitchen's nearly empty." He chuckled. It sounded forced "I would understand if Your Majesty wants to ride off."

"Oh, not at all. I've had enough carriage exercise, and this is… charming, defrosting."

_Someone please show me what made her state this house was charming; I am not seeing it._ Rose quipped mentally.

"It's my first visit to this house;" the Queen continued, "my late husband spoke very highly of this place, the Torchwood State. Now, shall we go inside?" Sir Richard seemed hesitant, but the Queen ignored him blatantly, "And please excuse the naked girl."

"Sorry."

"She's a feral child." The Doctor butted in, "I bought her for sixpence in old London Town. It's was her or the Elephant Man, so..."

"Thinks he's funny but I'm so not amused. What do you think, ma'am?"

"It hardly matters. Shall we proceed?"

The Doctor looked down at her, smiling at her knowingly. She averted her gaze, ignoring his smug look "So close…"

Reynolds, the head guard, gave some orders to the remaining members of Her Majesty's escorting guard as the Queen stepped inside the State before the owner. The servants gave them a dark look before following them inside.

One of the guards took out of the carriage a fancy wooden box. The Doctor whistled, "So what's in there, then?"

"Property of the crown. I would dismiss any further thoughts, sir." Looking suspicious seemed to be Reynold's main facial expression. The Doctor made a face when he turned around, and they followed the guards inside, under the watchful eyes of the servitude.

They tailed Sir Robert as he showed them around, earning Her Majesty's praises at the house. Rose had to admit the inside of the house was a little bit more welcoming than the exterior, but she still couldn't shrug off the uneasiness she felt when they arrived.

"Doctor." Rose whispered. He nodded to make her know he was listening "Don't you think there was something strange about Sir Richard's behaviour?"

"Yeah, I noticed too. It seemed he didn't want us here."

She shuddered "I don't like it. This place creeps me out."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a smug smile "If you have already realized you won't win the bet it's okay; I won't be mad, even if you accept defeat so _early_."

"Oh you-" she hit him on the arm "That's not it! You'll see, I'll make her say it."

They visited some more rooms until they arrived to the most illuminated one of the entire Manor, and Sir Robert's pride. The roof was all glass, letting the soft light of the nightfall come inside naturally. The spacious room was decorated with all sorts of planet models and astronomical maps, and in the centre of the room stood a giant telescope.

Its golden gears made it stay still in a pre-set position, and the wooden exterior with golden decorations made Rose gape in amazement. This, she decided, was her favourite part of the house.

"This, I take it, is the famous endeavour." The Queen commented

Sir Richard nodded behind her "All my father's work. Built by hand on his final years. It became sort of an obsession; he spent most of his money in finishing it instead of caring in his house or himself."

The Doctor smiled, his eyes trailing to the object "A polymath, I like him. That thing is beautiful. Can I..?" he gestured to the telescope, eager to take a look at it

"Help yourself."

"What did he model it on?" he asked while inspecting the antique device, Rose close behind him.

"I know nothing about it, to be honest. Most thought of him to be a little… eccentric. I wish now I had spent some more time with him, listen to his stories."

"It's a bit rubbish." The Doctor stated, oblivious of the startled looks around him. Rose turned around slowly, concentrating really hard on not laughing "How many prisms has it got? Way too many... the magnification's gone right over the top, that's a stupid kind of-" he suddenly mumbled to Rose "Am I being rude again?"

"Yup."

"But it's pretty! Very... pretty!"

"And the imagination of it should be applauded." The Queen stepped in, regarding the Doctor a warning glare.

"I thought you may disapprove, Your majesty. Stargazing… isn't that a bit fanciful? This must not amuse you…" she saw from the corner of her eye as the Doctor shook his head slightly. She looked back at him, and saw how he tried to supress his grin

"This device surveys the infinite work of god. What could be finer? Sir Robert's father was an example for us all; equally faired in astronomy and sciences, and cultured in folklore as well."

"Stars and magic; I like him more and more."

"My late husband enjoyed to spend his time in the company of former Sir McLeish, more so when he heard of those stories of the local wolf." She looked at the son expectant.

"What's about the wolf?" Rose asked

"It's just a story." Robert chuckled nervously

"Then tell it, then."

Sir Robert was about to start, but the servant interrupted him "Sir, maybe the guest should retire to their assigned rooms. It's getting dark."

"O-of course. Yes, of course."

"And then supper." The Queen added, more like a command "And… could we find some clothes for Ms Tyler? I am tired of nakedness."

"It's not amusing, is it?" Rose tried again. And she failed.

"Stop it." the Doctor mumbled

"We shall dine at seven and talk some more about that wolf. After all, there is a full moon tonight."

Sir Robert bowed and let the Queen step out of the room, and all of them followed the servants to their rooms for the night.

Rose looked around the guest room. It really was spacious, but she couldn't shrug off the chill that came from unused rooms. The only thing that clued that someone had really gone inside in the last months was that there was no sign of dust on the bureau or the cupboards.

She sighed inwardly when she remembered she had to put on one of those uncomfortable dresses of the XIX century in order not to offend the Queen anymore. It's not like she really cared, but she didn't want to be imprisoned for public indecency, or vanished.

She opened the wardrobe, and was startled to find a cowering maid inside, looking back at her with horror, tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"Hey." She put her hand on her shoulder comfortingly, but she flinched "It's okay. I'm Rose, I'm not gonna hurt you. Can you tell me your name?"

"… It's Flora, miss."

"Hello, Flora. It's really nice to meet you. Now, can you tell me what happened? We can help you."

"They've taken everyone." She shivered "The monks. They brought with them an unnatural creature, a monster of the moonlight, and they have imprisoned everyone at the larder. I could hide before they found me, but miss… Ms Rose, I could hear roars coming from under us, and when the moon shines bright on the night sky, I could hear the howl of a wolf."

The girl was beginning to panic; it was clear in Rose's eye. She needed to snap her out of it if she wanted to get the full picture of the situation they'd been thrown in.

"Look at me." Rose forced her to focus her attention away of what laid under the house "We will help you, okay? I have a friend, the Doctor, and he and I will get all of you out of here, do you hear me? Now, I need you to listen to me very carefully." The maid nodded "You have to go to the dining hall to warn him; I'll go ahead to check up the cellar."

"And what do I tell him?"

She mused for a bit, but then a thought crossed her mind "Tell him 'Bad Wolf'." She chuckled "Oh, I'd really like to see his face when you do. Now, come out of here; we must hurry."

She helped her out of the crumpled place and they walked outside the room. Warning bells began flaring inside her head when she saw the slumped form of the guard on the floor, unconscious.

She heard Flora's muffled cries behind her. She turned around quickly to find her struggling against a bald man with orange robes. Another one grabbed her from behind, and she tried to pry off his hold on her with all her might. She'd managed to kick him once or twice, and felt his grip on her loosening.

She was about to escape when something hit her in the back of her head, and she lost consciousness.

.-.-.-.-.-.

When Rose regained awareness, the first thing she noticed was the cold steel of the shackles around her wrist and the quick breathing of at least ten people nearby. She blinked twice, trying to get rid of her headache and looked around - beside her, what appeared to be the staff of the house and Sir Robert's wife, judging by their gowns, were tied to the same heavy chain as her.

"Are you okay, child?" one of the men whispered

"Yeah... How long have I been out?"

"More or less five minutes since the monks brought you in. Flora's still out." he pointed with his head to the girl, still out cold.

She glanced at the quiet group confused "Why are you whispering?"

"We can't cry for help while we're trapped here. The monks told us that if we do, they'd gonna let him out and he was gonna slaughter us." Sir Robert's wife, Lady Isobel, mumbled, her eyes never leaving the slumped figure of a man inside a cage

She glanced where all of them were looking and frowned "But why? He's in a cage; he's a prisoner like us."

"He's nothing like us." The woman of the house spoke fearfully "Do not even speak to him. He may seem human, but he's a monster. He was the one who killed the guards when the monks came, and they subdue him until the moon is right up the sky - that's when the wolf comes out."

_He must be an alien_, Rose deduced. The figure remained crouched, immobile inside his metal prison. He looked harmless, but she'd dealt with a good fair of aliens to know the appearances didn't matter at all. Moreover, if what the prisoners said was true, it was really dangerous to drop your guard around him. _Still, we've got to give him a chance. Maybe he's being controlled to act that way_.

The pallid body jerked suddenly, watching her with cold, black eyes, and all the prisoners gasped. She heard Flora's voice behind her, soon to be subdued by the other people of the room. Cold terror froze her blood, but when she spoke she tried to control the waver in her voice.

"Hello? Where are you from?" she addressed the alien, ignoring the tugs and shushes coming from behind "You're not from Earth, so what planet are you from? We can give you a lift there, if you wish."

He let out a dark chuckle afterwards "My, my. At least. _Intelligence_." He let the wold drag, making her shiver subconsciously

"Where were you born?"

"This body? Ten miles away, a harmless boy stolen when we reached Brethern. I reached from his body and crushed his soul, silenced his heart, now it's for me to do as I please."

"Okay, so the body is human. What about you, the thing inside?"

"So far away from here..." he drawn off, staring into distance

"We can give you a ride, if you wish. We can take you home."

"Why would I leave this place? A world of endless bloodlust and warfare. I could turn it into such progress..."

"And how do you plan to do that?" she asked fearfully

"I would migrate to the Holly Monarch."

Rose gasped "You mean Queen Victoria?"

"With one bite, I would pass into her blood. I would carve into her soul, and then it begins; the Empire of the Wolf." he suddenly launched forward, losing his composure, and his dark eyes looked into her soul "So many questions... Look at you. Look, inside your eyes, you've seen it too!"

Despite everything, she made a step forward, tugging the heavy chain "Seen what?"

"The wolf," he whispered, a look between admiration and horror crossing his stoic face "There's something of the wolf about you! Your insides howl with the music of the eternity, and your soul burns like the sun."

He was swapped out of his reverie and stumbled backwards, looking as if he was trying to put as much distance as possible between them. Her heart beat like wild, flashes of forgotten golden memories and forbidden songs coming to her mind.

"I don't know what you mean." She tried to deny, but was only a dire attempt to reject the reality

"You burned so bright you eclipsed the moon, and in consequence my soul. Don't look at me. Don't look at me!"

Suddenly, the cellar doors flew open, and the moonlight streamed inside the creature's cage. He cried agonizingly, chanting repeatedly 'Do not look at me' like a broken record. It was demented, and if they didn't make it out soon, it would find a way to kill them all.

Rose averted her gaze from the trembling creature to the horrified people seating on the floor, too scared to even breathe.

"C'mon, stand up! We've gotta get away from here as soon as possible. Don't look at him!" slower than she deemed necessary, every one of them got to their feet and helped her tugging the rusty chain. The wall support gave out a bit, but it was still not enough. However, that seemed to be what the other prisoners needed, as they ignored the growls, and the following howls, until the chain broke.

Just when she regained her footing, a familiar voice came from the door, calling for her and warming her instantly. She turned around, and saw the worried face of the Doctor. She rushed to the exit and made the other people follow her, eager to leave the monster behind them.

Instead of following, the Doctor took one last glance at the creature finishing its transformation, marvelling at its beauty, before he clasped Rose hand with his own and, after locking the door, they rushed out of the damp cellar, escaping from the monster, which was already breaking free of the cage that had him confined.

While running, he checked out Rose's state. She seemed fine, if a bit shaken. The only physical injures he could see were the galls on her wrists because of the handcuffs all of them still wore.

With his free hand, he took out the sonic screwdriver and unlocked the heavy piece from her wrists, earning a grateful look from her.

They arrived at the gunroom, and the Doctor followed to free every prisoner. The men grabbed shotguns, ready to confront the beast, while the women would try to escape through the kitchen's backdoor. When he finished, he returned to Rose's side, who was rubbing her sore wrists.

"Did you talk with him? What did he want?"

"Power, the Queen, the throne, United Kingdom… you name it."

They suddenly heard a sound of wood breaking outside. Ignoring the look Rose gave him, he carefully stepped out of the room and sought the origin of the noise.

There, under the moonlight, it stood the creature, and the Doctor found the opportunity to look at it better. It was bipedal, his body was covered with thick dark fur, and his face had some resemblance of one of a wolf. Altogether, it explained the stories of werewolves around the area.

The creature growled in warning, and before it rushed forward, the Doctor legged it, returning to the room Rose was. He grabbed her hand and pulled away from the door, getting her at least behind the line of armed men.

He saw as they got out of ammo and the creature seemed to disappear. The men cheered, but he knew best.

"We should retreat upstairs." He said

"I will not retreat until I see that ungodly creature slaughtered." One of the servants said

"Don't you see it!? I will kill you!" the Doctor lost his cool

"No such creature could survive an assault like this." the man ignored the Doctor pleas and walked forward. At first, anything happened, but suddenly an arm appeared from above and snatched the poor man from the neck.

The Doctor urged them out of the room, trying to supress the screams of agony coming from behind them. They soon found Queen Victoria coming from upstairs, demanding to know what was going on. When Robert asked her about the monk, she simply answered she disposed of him.

The Doctor came from some rooms further the stairs "All doors locked. I shall suggest Your Majesty to leg it through the window."

When they reached said window, Sir Robert stepped forward.

"Excuse my manners, ma'am, but I shall go first, the better to assist her majesty's egress."

"A noble sentiment, my Sir Walter Raleigh."

"Yeah, any chance you could hurry it up?" the Doctor interrupted impatient. Robert complied and opened the windows, only to be nearly shot by one of the vigilant monks outside.

The man rushed to close the window "It seems that the monkey boys want us to stay inside."

"Do they know who I am?" the Queen scowled outraged

"Yeah, that's why they want you." Rose butted in "The wolf wants you for… a biting."

"Now stop this nonsense talk, child. That can't be an actual wolf."

A howl shut her up, and they ran upstairs to lose the creature that was following them. It was about to catch with them, but Reynolds was waiting for them at the end of the corridor, gun in hand, and shot the beast.

"I will take this position; I'll try to give you an advantage. You keep moving, for god's sake!" he then looked to the Queen "Your Majesty, I went to the locker looking for the possession; it was stolen."

"I have it. I'll keep it safe."

"Doctor, you are now the protector of the Queen. Sir Robert, you are a traitor of the crown. Now leave!"

"Bullets won't stop him!" the Doctor roared

"It will slow it down!"

"We can't let you die for nothing!" Rose bellowed

"Thank you for your concern, miss, but it is my decision to make. Now go!"

The Queen and Sir Robert rushed through the corridor, followed by a hesitant Doctor. Rose made some steps back, but resolve rushed through her. She stepped forward and stood beside the guard, who after shooting the werewolf looked at her unbelievingly.

"I told you to go!" he shouted at her

"I won't stand quiet and watch someone get killed if I can do something about it. You are coming with us! And that's an order." She grabbed his arm and pulled it to make him follow. When she raised her gaze, the wolf had recovered and was sprinting towards them.

When he stepped in the library, he noticed Rose was missing. He ran outside, only to see her back at the end of the corridor, just where Reynolds was holding the alien down. He then heard the growls and the stomping coming near.

"STOP!" she shouted at the wolf

"ROSE!" He cried, running to where she was.

The creature whined and stopped for some seconds, the time the Doctor needed to grab her and push her and the guard towards the library, where they proceeded to barricade all the entrances.

"What were you thinking!?" the Doctor demanded, his eyes darkening "It could've killed you!"

"What do you expect me to do? Stay quiet while someone is killed in front of me?" she crossed her arms "No bloody way."

They fell into silence, and the Doctor noticed the wolf was too quiet. He walked to the door and put his ear on the wood, listening for every little sound. He heard soft growls of the wolf, but they soon vanished.

"… It's gone."

"Is it?"

They listened closely at the sounds coming from the outside. The wolf seemed to be trying to find a way in, but after some moments of tension, he left.

"I can't understand. What's stopping 'im?" Sir Robert asked

"Something inside this room." The Doctor roamed around, looking at the walls "What is it, why can't he get in?"

Rose talked again, her arms still crossed "I tell you what, though."

"What?"

"A werewolf." She told him, suddenly excited

"I know!" he went and hugged her, relishing her warmth. After some moments, he pulled back and studied her

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Don't you ever scare me like this again, do you hear me? I'm being serious."

"I will make no such promises." She grinned, her tongue poking out from between her teeth. The worry vanished from his face, and he allowed himself to snicker lightly.

She looked in the direction where a shaken Reynolds was sitting, and left the Doctor's side to check up on him. She put a hand on his shoulder and flinched slightly, averting his eyes upwards where her face was.

"Are you okay?"

He nodded hastily "I-I will be, ma'am. I just need some moments to shake off the fright inside my bones. That creature… it seemed to flinch when you shouted at it. How did you stop it?"

"I didn't do such thing." She cocked her head, trying to remember every detail of the rushed accident "Maybe he tripped with something?"

"I know what I saw, miss, and that monster didn't trip. One second he was ready to kill us, the second later he was cowering away."

They fell into silence, and was Sir Richard who broke it.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. It's my entire fault."

"You're right about that." The guard commented heatedly

Sir Robert ignored him "I should have sent you away; I tried to say something was wrong… I thought you might notice. Didn't you think there was something strange about my household staff?" he addressed the Doctor

"Well, they were bald, athletic, your wife's away... I just thought you were happy!" he joked, making Rose laugh

"I bet you don't find his commentary amusing, ma'am."

"Do you think this is funny?" the Queen asked harshly, shaking from head to toe.

Rose sobered up "No, of course not. Ma'am, I'm sorry"

"What exactly, I pray, tell me, someone, please, what exactly is that creature?

The Doctor scratched his neck in discomfort "You'd call it a werewolf, but technically it's more of a lupine-wavelength haemovariform-"

"And should I trust you, sir?" she interrupted him "When you change your voices so easily? What happened to your accent?"

He stared at her uncomprehending, but soon realized his mistake "Oh, right, sorry…"

"I won't have it! No sir! Not you, not that thing, none of it. This is not my world."

Rose really wished to give her a piece of her mind, but the warning looks Reynolds gave her from behind her stopped her. She would swallow her words; she didn't want to be executed.

The Doctor studied the room once more, already accustomed to the Queen's reaction. It was a normal human response – the denial. Even some of his prior companions had had it. He looked at the blonde girl, her shoulders stiff and her mouth clasped shut, containing herself from some sort of remark, and he smiled. Well, she wasn't like his other companions, was she?

From the corner of his eye, he noticed an engraving on the cupboard they used to secure the door. He realized it was an image of mistletoe.

"Mistletoe…" he mumbled. He examined the walls, and found some more wooden carvings around. His nose picked up a soft smell coming from the walls. He licked one of them, making Rose cringe "_Viscum album_ – oil of mistletoe. That's what doesn't let the wolf in; he's either allergic to it or the monks trained him that way to control it. Your dad knew and prepared a safe haven full of mistletoe. How clever was your dad!" he cheered

"Nevertheless, that creature won't give up, Doctor. We still are trapped, and we've only got one empty gun – we don't possess an actual weapon."

He shook his head "Your father got all the brains, didn't he?"

"Being rude again!" Rose called, smiling

"Good, I meant that one. You want weapons? We're in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!" he took out of his pocket his glasses and put them on "This room's the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!"

He took out some books and threw them to the people standing closer to him. Rose grabbed one and eyed its contents.

"What are we looking for?"

"Any record that Sir McLeish had on the werewolf. It could be legends, reports or even some sort of diary kept by him. Anything is helpful."

They all began chatting about their findings, even if they weren't so many. The room began to look like a mess, all the books scattered on any flat surface they found.

The Doctor found something in one of the looks he was checking, and called for their attention "Look at what I found." He pushed away some of the books on the table and placed the one on his hands there "Something fell to Earth."

"A spaceship?"

"A shooting star." Sir Robert read "In the year of 1540, under the reign of King James V, an almighty fire burned in the pit. But that's near the monastery, only some miles away from here."

"Then what did it take him so much?"

"Maybe a single cell survived, passing itself from host to host, to host, while it grew stronger in every generation."

"But what about the throne?"

"That's what he said he wanted; the Empire of the Wolf." Rose added

"Now that it has regained his strength, infecting Queen Victoria's body he establishes an empire on Earth, advancing in technology and building starships and missiles fuelled by coal and driven by steam… leading history out of its right path."

The Queen stood up "Reynolds, if I am to die here, I prefer to perish by your hand before being infected by that thing. I assume you will carry that task."

"Of course, milady."

"Good. Now, Sir Robert, I hope you know some place for safe keeping for something far… older and more precious than myself." She began rummaging her purse

"A good time to be worrying about your valuables." The Doctor stated sarcastically

"Thank you for your opinion, but there's nothing more valuable than this." she then took out one of the biggest diamonds Rose had ever seen, if not the first one.

"What's this thing?" she wondered aloud

"The Koh-i-noor. The greatest diamond in the world."

"Given to me as the spoils of war. Perhaps its legend is now coming true. It is said that whoever owns it must surely die."

"Well, that's true of anything if you wait long enough." He remarked, "Can I?"

He extended his arm, and the Queen retracted hers. After some tense moments, she let him grab the stone and examine it. Rose stepped closer, checking out the beautiful jewel.

"Good job my mum's not here, she'd be fighting the wolf off with her bare hands for that."

"And she'd win." He joked "Why are you travelling with it?"

"I'm taking it to the royal jewellers at Hazlehead. It needs a re-cutting."

"But it's already perfect."

"My late husband never thought so. He always said the shine was not quite right… but he died, and it's still unfinished."

"Unfinished… Oh yes." The Doctor's mind suddenly cleared out, ideas popping inside his mind at rapid speed. He threw the jewel to the monarch, who grabbed it cautiously, and began rambling "There are a lot of unfinished business here. Your husband came here to visit his father a lot. Hold on, hold on, all these separate things are not separate at all! They are connected! The telescope that's not a telescope, and the diamond that's not a jewel. Urgh!" he ran his hands through his hair, leaving it messy "This house was a trap for you, isn't it right, ma'am?"

"Yes, it is."

"What if there's a trap within a trap – not for you, but the creature. What if his father and your husband planned against it." they heard a crack from above. They looked up slowly, only to find the werewolf crashing through the skylight.

"RUN!"

They removed the furniture blocking the door as fast as possible, and the five of them ran to the observatory. The wolf was getting closer and closer, and Rose felt one paw swinging near her hair. She took a look behind, and the wolf whined as someone threw a bucket of at him.

The beast wailed and growled, steam coming from the hot liquid that made him squirm. She looked at Lady Isobel, who was still holding the bucket when Sir Robert kissed her and told her to escape with the maids.

They reached the observatory, but any one of them knew what they had to do next.

"We need time. This doors are not barred against the werewolf, is there any way to barricade them?"

"Do your work, and I'll protect you." Sir Robert stepped outside the room

"If we block the doors we'll get enough time to prepare-"

"I said I will give you time. Now get inside." He said solemnly

Reynolds stepped forward "I shall accompany you to fight this beast."

"No. As the head guard of Her Highness, you must stay by her side and protect her for all costs. I am simple a treasonous man, but I may die with honour."

The Doctor nodded "Good man." And then, he closed the door. He urged Rose to help him with the wooden wheel, adjusting the angle of the telescope so it aligned with the full moon, doing their best to ignore the agonic screams of the man outside. Strong white light came from the other end, and Rose gasped in realisation.

"It's not a telescope!" she exclaimed

"Exactly!" he grinned "It's a light chamber; The magnifying isn't wrong, it's just made to catch as many moon rays as possible and concentrate them in a strong ray of light. That's what will defeat the wolf, moonlight!"

The wolf chose that moment to barrage in, rushing to where the monarch and the guard were standing. The Doctor threw the diamond to the floor, making it land at the end of the stream.

The room was suddenly an explosion of light, capturing the howling wolf and suspending him mid-air before reverting it to his human form. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at the time travellers.

"Make it brighter, please. Let me go." He then looked at Rose when the Doctor moved "At least I saw the sun before the moon captured me."

The Doctor adjusted the telescope, making the light brighter. The figure howled and slowly faded, leaving them gasping for air.

"Are you all okay?" he asked after a while

"Milady, is your wrist bleeding?" Reynolds asked. The Queen dismissed their concern saying it was a splinter and covered her skin, hiding the wound to the others.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Morning chirped around the Torchwood State and the two travellers, the Queen and her guard and Lady Isobel stood inside the main living room. Reynolds was outside the stall, ordering around the other guards, getting ready for a long trip.

At Her Majesty's signal, both Rose and the Doctor kneeled in front of the Queen, who began reciting words that Rose never thought she could hear addressed to her.

"By the power invested to me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Sir Doctor of the Tardis." She placed the sword that Sir Robert used to fight the wolf in both of his shoulders "By the power invested to me by the Church and the State, I dub thee Dame Rose of the Powell State. You may stand."

"Thanks, ma'am, they are never gonna believe this at home." Rose thanked excitedly

"You were looking for a sign of the greater beyond, ma'am. Your husband spent the last years of his life carving that diamond to save your life. He's still protecting you, even from the grave."

"Indeed." She remained stoic, but it could be heard some waver on her voice "Then you may think of this, also, that I am not amused," at that, Rose cheered "Not remotely amused, and henceforth, I banish you."

"I'm sorry?"

Rose was speechless. When she thought about the Queen banishing her it was sarcasm. Well, that proved that reality always comes to bite your ass.

"The world that you set, Doctor, is not my world, and now you're exiled from this Empire, never to return." At that she stepped closer "I don't know what you are the two of you, or where you're from, but I know that you consider stars and magic, and think it fun, but your world is steep in terror, and I will not allow it." she then stepped back "Now leave my world, and never come back."

After a ride that one of the workers of the state kindly gave them, and a short walk hypothesising about the Royal haemophilia really being lycanthropy, they reached their dear TARDIS. Feeling the need of washing off after being thrown to the floor at the cellar, Rose made her way to her room and closed the door behind her.

Rose couldn't shake off the words of the alien, from when she was trapped in the cellar and when he was about to die. How could he possibly know about the Bad Wolf? The Doctor said he took it out of her, that he checked twice. It wasn't possible to have remainings of the time vortex in her head without dying, hell, he had died within minutes.

She looked at her reflection, searching for something, anything in her that could've affected the werewolf like it did. She just looked as always, her hair longer than before and the dark roots standing out against the bleached blonde hair.

Her face looked the same; that little scar on her temple when they blew up Downing Street, the soft spot on her ear, the tiny scratch on her check for all the shenanigans of their last adventure.

Then she fixated her gaze to her eyes. She saw the same hazel orbs looking back at her and she felt utterly stupid, but when she was about to avert her eyes she noticed something. She approached to the mirror and concentrated herself on her pupils. Some seconds later, she saw golden particles appear in them, just to disappear a moment after.

She stumbled back in surprise and knocked out the make-up on the bureau, falling with her to the floor. She began to panic. She still had the vortex inside her. The vortex that was meant to kill everyone who held it. What did it mean? Why did she still have it? Was she going to die?

A soft knock came from the door, and the voice of the Doctor came from behind "Rose, are you okay? I heard a commotion, but the TARDIS doesn't let me to come in."

"Y-yeah." She stumbled "I just found a spider in my hair, and it startled me a bit."

"Do you need my help to get rid of it?" he asked amused

"No, I can do that just fine. Thank you for your offer, though." She hesitated.

Did she tell him or not? It could potentially kill her, but she had been okay 'till now. Moreover, what if he tried to take it out and he died again? She wasn't ready to watch him die, not so soon. And what told her that he could do again that regeneration trick he'd used before? As far as she knew, he could've ran out of regenerations.

She heard him walk away, and she made a decision. She was going to wait. It was dangerous, and it could very well end up with her life, but she wasn't going to risk losing him for he wellbeing.

After all, the universe needed him more than it needed her.


	27. School reunion

**I'm so sorry for the delay! However, I bring good news because we. Have. A Beta! *insert clapping* Thanks to BadWolfGirl01, now the chapters will have more fluidity and less errors, and she's agreed to check the story since the beginning, so we have a lot of work to do.**

**As for the chapter, I changed as much as I could, taking into account where my story diverges from canon. Hope you like it!**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 21. School reunion**

_She embraced the sorrow, accepting the pain as a part of herself._

.-.-.-.-.-.

Despite being a very strict faculty, rumours spread rather quickly at Deffry Vale High School. Maybe it was the hormones of the teens, trapped inside of the institution for eight full hours; or maybe it just was them trying to find any story to distract their minds from the strenuous routine.

Therefore, when two new teachers came three days ago, the whole school burst with excitement. One of them was Mr. John Smith, too cheerful, flamboyant, and attractive (those glasses made most of the older girls sigh in awe) to be a boring physics teacher. He carried himself with confidence, and treated his students like equals, something they weren't used to.

Oh, but he didn't come alone. Ms. Rose Tyler came at the same time as him, and while more than half of the school was charmed by her sweetness and patience, she did have a terrible temper when students crossed the line**.** She was the Arts teacher, and never the class had had so many students before.

And the gossip didn't stop there. Every student who had caught a glimpse of the two of them together could see there was something going on between them. It was the way she smiled at him, with the tongue poking out of her teeth, a smile only he received; or the way he clenched his fists with a look of longing every time he was beside her, as if restraining himself from grabbing her hand.

Most of them thought they were together, the wildest of the rumours being that they were going to elope soon.

John Smith was sitting at the cafeteria, waiting impatiently for Rose to arrive. He had already picked food for the two of them, if only she ended doing whatever she was doing and came here.

It all had started with Mickey's call. He said there was something going on in a school of a town nearby, and he had noticed some UFO activity from the UNIT webpage, so he added two and two together and called them, asking for help.

And here they were. They had replaced two of the teachers – after Rose's total refusal of becoming a dinner lady – and began giving classes at the school while doing some undercover investigation.

The extra work, he didn't mind – quite the contrary, as the students seemed to have knowledge way too advanced – but it was the fact of being away from Rose half of the day what was irking him to no end. Not only that, but he couldn't hug her or hold her hand at the school premises, and his hands itched constantly.

He didn't understand it. He had never had this… _longing_ to be near one person all the time, in constant touching, her reassuring presence beside him. He hadn't noticed until now, as she had always been by his side, but…

Something had really gone wrong with his last regeneration, that was for sure.

The cafeteria's chatter suddenly became louder. He raised his gaze and saw Rose coming towards him. She had her hair put up in a messy ponytail, and she had two little droplets of navy blue paint on her cheek. He couldn't stop grinning like a loon until she sat down in front of him.

"War at class?" he teased, reaching for her cheek and cleaning one of the spots on her soft skin. God, he had missed her. The way her eyes twinkled with amusement, the way her cherry mouth curled in a way that made him-

He dropped the hand, pushing those thoughts aside. Dangerous. Really dangerous way of thinking.

Rose hadn't noticed the inner war inside him and laughed "I know! The little ones have found their inspiration spraying the paint like crazy. They helped me clean afterwards, so everyone's happy. Are you eating that?"

She picked up a chip and ate it. He scrunched his nose in disgust, something she saw and raised her eyebrow in question, still chewing.

"What?"

"The chips taste wrong."

"I think they're gorgeous." She took another one "Anyway, how was your morning, Mr. Physics teacher?"

"It was nice. In fact, it's very well behaved, this place. I thought they'd all be happy-slapping hoodies. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs. Happy-slapping hoodies with ASBOs and ringtones!"

"Maybe a bit too much, don't ya' think?" she grinned

He tugged his ear "Mickey was right. Those kids have knowledge way beyond this year, for not saying century. It's really clear that something fishy **is** going on."

"Wait," she interrupted him, holding one hand up "I've got to record this. Mickey would die to hear this."

"Stop it!" he grabbed her hand, and took his chance to intertwine his fingers with hers. Surprisingly, the itching he had suffered all day stopped.

Giggling came from around them. Rose looked around, as all the teens were looking at them and whispering, naughty smiles on their faces. She looked at their joined hands and blushed.

"Um… Doctor? Everyone is watching us." She whispered, trying to conceal her red cheeks

"Uh? Oh." He let go of his hand and scratched his neck in embarrassment. He had to get a hold of himself, and quickly.

They ate their meals together, talking about everything and nothing, and the bell of the next class startled them both.

"Well, it seems it's time to go. Do you have classes now?" he asked her

"Nah, I'm free 'till tomorrow. What about you?"

"I only have one at four. So what do you say, Dame Rose, shall we mingle with the rest of the staff?" he wiggled his eyebrows

She laughed, "We may, Sir Doctor."

A cry of pain startled both of them. They rushed to the kitchen, where one dinner lady was squirming and crying on the floor, a big splotch of oil on the floor and said woman. Two of her coworkers helped her up, making sure they didn't touch her as much as possible and carried her out the kitchen.

"Is she okay? I'm gonna phone an ambulance." Rose said to the women who stayed behind.

"No. She's alright. We can handle it."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow "You call _that _being alright? Seemed in a lot of pain to me. Don't you think so, Ms. Tyler?"

"Oh, I agree, Mr. Smith." Observing their increasing defensive postures, she decided to give up. For now "But John, they seem to have everything under control, and we have a meeting to attend. How about we go and we ask for her later?"

He seemed to catch her double meaning and nodded, both of them leaving the busy kitchen. They headed to the teacher's room, ignoring the ever-present whispers that had surrounded them since they began working at the school.

When they arrived, the Doctor offered to make them tea while the headmaster made his usual afternoon speech. Once finished, he walked towards where Rose was, currently talking with someone. She noticed him approaching and smiled at him.

"Here you are! John, let me introduce you to Ms. Sarah Jane Smith. She's a journalist, and she's making a coverage of the school. Sarah Jane, this is John Smith."

He stared at her, a slow smile growing on his face. He extended his hand and she shook it with confidence.

"Nice to meet you, Sarah Jane Smith." He said, grinning from ear to ear

"Nice to meet you too. I used to have a friend who went with John Smith long ago."

"Well, it's a very common name!" he dropped her hand when he noticed Rose's confused look, but he couldn't stop smiling at the woman

A look of reminiscing came over her face as she shrugged "He was a very uncommon man." She then coughed, regaining her composure "Well, Rose was telling me you both are new at this school, and she said there were some… _odd_ things going on. Have you noticed anything?"

"I told her about the ill students, John."

"Right. Yes. The ill students. They seem growing in number each day, don't they, Rose?"

She nodded "I had to carry little Tim to the nursery yesterday because he couldn't even stand up from his chair, the poor thing. Haven't seen him today."

"Maybe I should check out the nurse first. She may have something to say about it." she closed the little notebook she had on her hands and looked at the two teachers "Thank you for your time."

"Anytime. See you soon." The Doctor said with a secretive smile, but Sarah Jane didn't notice. She headed to the door and left the teacher's room.

Rose frowned at the Doctor, who was still looking towards the way the journalist had taken with a fond smile. Oh, she was certain there was something he wasn't telling.

"So who is she?" she inquired. He turned around and looked at her confused, so she felt obligated to be more specific "Sarah Jane. You seemed to recognise her."

"_Oh._ She's… well, she travelled with me a while ago, with my third and fourth incarnations. She was an investigative journalist back then, and stepped inside my TARDIS. I sort of took off without knowing she was inside and well…" he scratched his neck

"Wait… you didn't notice she was inside?" she looked at him with amusement "What happened with all that 'I'm a Time Lord, a superior species, I'm so impressive' speech?"

He sniffed "I _am_ so impressive, Rose."

"Right." She grinned, but then frowned when a thought crossed her mind "But wait, why didn't you tell her it was you? She knew about regeneration, right? She's bound to believe you."

"Oh. Well, that has an explanation. A reason of sorts. Of course there is a reason why I didn't tell her; I have a Time Lord brain, I can think about the possible outcome of everything I do at the second, so I thought it was better not to tell her. Moreover, she's bound to guess by her own."

She raised an eyebrow "Would you care to _enlighten_ me with your justified reason of sorts?"

He rubbed his earlobe uncomfortably. "Well… when I was in my fourth body I received Gallifrey's calling, and I couldn't bring her with me so… I may have dropped her in her house and never seen her again, making her believe I am possibly dead."

Neither of them said anything for ten long seconds. Rose looked at him in shock first, but her expression morphed into something he didn't think he would see directed to him, fury.

Without a word, she grabbed his hand rather strongly and made him follow her outside. They passed by some classes, and Rose finally stopped in front of a cream door. She opened it and ushered him inside what he discovered was the janitor's cupboard, then followed him inside the crumpled space. If it wasn't for the situation he was in, he would've enjoyed being pressed so tightly against her.

Wait, no. Of course he wouldn't have enjoyed it.

When she closed the door, she turned around to face him, and her expression didn't falter "What the hell were you thinking!? Why didn't you come back to her!?"

"Rose, I couldn't. I didn't want to leave her, but Gallifrey…"

"We're not talking about you leaving Sarah Jane, Doctor. We're talking about how you abandoned her. You could come back for her, but you didn't."

"I don't do this, Rose. It's painful to come back to see all of you have aged, moved with your life, and not willing to travel with me anymore." He ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. What could he say to make her understand?

"Did you ask her if she wanted to keep traveling? And how many were there before her? Before _me_? Is this what will happen to me? Because if you're just going to throw me out I prefer to go by my own two feet."

Something snapped inside him and he lurched forward, trapping her between the door and his body, her head between his arms. Her face changed into a look of surprise, and some part of his consciousness congratulated him.

"No. I'm not leaving you." he whispered with conviction

She shuddered at the intensity of his eyes, but didn't allow herself to lose her conviction "But what about Sarah Jane? You were this close to her and now you don't even mention her. Why would I think it'd be different for me?"

"I don't age, Rose." He captured a loose strand of hair and placed it behind her ear "I regenerate. But humans decay. You whither and you die." He exhaled roughly "Imagine watching that happening to someone who you…"

Her heart bolted "Who you what, Doctor?"

"You can spend the rest of your life with me, but I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on. Alone. The curse of the Time Lords. And I don't know if I would be able to do it."

He fell silent and looked at her. She didn't seem angry anymore, just sad, and was staring at him with those brilliant eyes he adored so much. He rested his forehead on hers, emotionally exhausted.

"Would you want to, though?" she asked silently after a while "Would you want me with you after all this time? After I am not able to run with you anymore?" she placed a hand on his cheek and he closed his eyes, resting his face on her palm

"Of course I want it, Rose. All the time you can give me, I want it."

A loud bell startled them both, and the Doctor knocked one of the brooms, hitting his head. Rose burst into laughter while he rubbed his sore head, glaring at her half-heartedly.

"Rose Tyler, stop it."

She didn't "You didn't see your face!"

He allowed himself to chuckle, and shook off the whirlwind of feelings that went through him mere moments ago. He looked down to his clock and cursed in Gallifreyan.

"Gotta go, I have class with seventh graders. I fear to know what they'll do if I come up late."

"Maybe they discover the fourth gravitation rule or something." She said, amused

"Nah, it'll actually be discovered a century from now. Nice fella, we had some drinks."

She chuckled "If I didn't know you, I'd think this story has a Jack ending."

"Oi!"

"Weren't you late?" she wondered aloud, amused.

He looked down at his clock, then at her. He really had to go; it would do no good if he was fired while being undercover. Before he could second-guess himself, he placed his lips softly on her forehead in a light kiss.

"See you later at the TARDIS."

And he left the dark and cramped place, leaving behind a slightly flushed Rose, touching her forehead with her fingertips.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The plan had been rather simple; sneak in the school at night and look for any clues. He'd landed the TARDIS directly at one of the school rooms, and Mickey the Idiot, Rose and him had split up to cover all the premises; Mickey began with the classes, Rose with the kitchen, and him with the teachers' office.

When he was looking through some papers, he heard something. It was a sound which a human would probably dismiss as the creaking of the building, but he knew better than that. He smiled; as expected, she had broken in.

He followed her silently, noticing happily that she had unknowingly taken the path to the TARDIS. He heard her soft gasp when she saw the spaceship, and saw the tiny steps she took towards it.

He chose this moment to step inside and close the door, startling her. She turned around, and he saw the gears moving behind her eyes.

"Hello, Sarah Jane."

She brought her hands to her mouth, disbelieving "It's you… Oh, Doctor." She dropped her hands, a slow smile forming on her lips "Oh my god, it's you. It's… it's… you've regenerated."

"Half a dozen times since we last met."

"You look incredible."

"So do you."

She dismissed the compliment "I got old. What are you doing here?"

"Well… UFO sightings, school gets record results…" he shrugged "I couldn't resist. What about you?"

"Same." They both laughed, but Sarah Jane's smile soon dropped "I still can't believe you're in front of me." A piercing scream shook them both "Well, now I can believe it."

They began running down corridors, following the scared cry. Soon, he could hear footsteps coming from his left, and moments later Rose joined them.

"Did you hear it too?" she asked between puffs

"Yeah, it's coming from above."

"Okay. Hello, Sarah Jane. Nice to see you."

The woman stopped startled, but soon resumed her pace. _The Doctor's new assistant. Figures. _"Nice to see you too." She answered, albeit a bit curtly. She then turned to the Doctor "You can tell you're getting older, your assistants are getting younger."

Rose raised an eyebrow. Was she the same woman she had been chatting with hours ago? "You had no problem believing I was a teacher. Moreover, I am not his assistant."

"No? I get you, tiger."

The Doctor frowned. What on Rassilon was going on? He rushed his strides, trying to make them drop… whatever that was. He was relieved when he heard both of them following, and soon the three of them arrived to the class he was pretty sure the scream had come from.

But what he didn't expect was to find Mickey cowering in front of an open cupboard, little packages around him.

"Sorry! Sorry, it was only me. You told me to investigate, so I- I started looking through some of these cupboards, and all of these fell out of them."

The Doctor bent down and picked up some of the packages on the floor. Rose looked from above his shoulder and scrunched her nose "Oh my god, they are rats. Vacuum packed rats."

The Doctor looked at Mickey and raised an eyebrow "And you decided to shout."

"It surprised me!"

"Like a girl."

Mickey huffed, annoyed "Stop it."

The Doctor glanced at Rose, who was trying to supress her smile "I see two pigtails and a pink frilly dress."

"No, but seriously." She added, an amused smile still on her face "Isn't it strange, though? Rats in school?"

Sarah Jane spoke up "Well, obviously they use them in Biology lessons. They dissect them. Or maybe you haven't reached that bit yet. How old are you?"

Rose had cocked her head at the dissection comment – do they really do that? – but soon angered at her snappy comment. What the hell was wrong with her? Before she could retort, Mickey stepped up between them.

"But they don't dissect rats in school anymore. They haven't done it for years. And watch what you say to Rose, old lady."

"Anyway!" the Doctor called, trying in vain to suffocate the upcoming brawl. Sarah Jane threw a dirty look at Rose and Mickey, but he made an effort to ignore it. That was why he didn't do domestics "Moving on. Everything started when Mr Flinch arrived. We should go and check his office." He concluded

He chucked the rat at a still apprehensive Mickey, who quickly threw it to the floor, and the three humans followed the Time Lord out of the room.

"So," Sarah Jane asked with a slightly calmer voice "Who exactly are you?"

Rose stiffed her urge to snap at her and took a deep breath before answering "Rose Tyler. I'm twenty, and I've been the Doctor's companion for a year and a half."

"What were you studying when you began travelling with him?"

_Be nice, Rose. She's important for the Doctor, Rose _"Nothing, I believe. Mickey told me I was a waitress, but mum said I had more part-time jobs besides the one at the café."

Sarah Jane raised an eyebrow "How can you not be sure about what you did? And why did you leave your studies?"

The Doctor opened his mouth in protest, but Rose beat him "Is this a job interview? Because I'm not interested, thank you." she snapped, irritated.

She sped up, trying with all her might to shrug off her nagging questions, but she followed, demanding answers. The Doctor stared at their backs, rubbing his neck uncomfortably.

Mickey hit his shoulder with his palm "Ho ho, mate! The missus and the ex. Welcome to a men's worst nightmare."

He ignored the boy's remark and followed the bickering women. He was surprised to see the two of them waiting for him in silence, but flinched when he met Rose's cold eyes. Yep, he was definitely screwed.

He unlocked the door with a flicker of his trustworthy sonic screwdriver, and opened it quietly, not really knowing what was waiting for them at the other side. He looked around, not seeing anything too suspicious, but movement caught his eye. He looked up and had to refrain himself from gasping as he took a glimpse of… well, he wasn't sure of their species, yet.

"Rose?" he whispered, trying his best to be as silent as possible "Remember when you told me one of your students asked if you and the other teachers slept in the school?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, they do now."

He pointed upwards and the three humans followed his finger. On the ceiling, creatures that could only be described as giant bats slept upside-down, their wings wrapped up against themselves.

"I count thirteen of them." Rose muttered

"That would be Mr Flinch and the new staff, beside us." He ushered outside and closed the door behind him. As soon as he did it, the four of them could hear a loud shriek behind "We have to go. Now."

They rushed outside the school, and only stopped when they were hidden behind some trees. Sarah Jane and Mickey were taking deep breaths, trying to calm their racing hears. Rose was fine, as she was already used to all the running, and the Doctor had his respiratory bypass, so he hadn't lost his breath.

"Doctor, do you think they saw us?" Sarah Jane asked between pants

"I don't think so; they would have followed us outside. Rose, did you manage to get what we talked about?"

"Yep." She rummaged inside her pockets and took out a vial with a yellow liquid inside it "Oil from the kitchens, the one inside the same container that spilled on that dinner lady."

"Brilliant!" he took the vial and shook it, observing the fluid with interest "The TARDIS is inside, though. We'll have to **go** back inside to analyse it."

Sarah Jane suddenly raised her hand. "I might be able to help with that."

.-.-.-.-.-.

They ended up sitting at a chippy near the school, the Doctor repairing Sarah Jane's robot (which was a dog, really retro-looking, and was named K9), the owner just sitting in front of him and chatting about past adventures; while Rose and Mickey were sitting in silence at another table.

Suddenly, Mickey spoke up "You see, what's impressive is that it's been nearly an hour since we met her and I still haven't said 'I told you so'." Rose glared at him. Mickey ignored the look and continued "Although I've prepared a little 'I was right' dance I can show you later."

"Mickey, dear, do me a favour and shut it."

The shopkeeper interrupted them, asking her to pay the bill, and Mickey snickered.

"All this time you've been giving it, 'He's different!' when the truth is he's like any other bloke."

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"Maybe not. But if I were you… I'd go easy on the chips."

"Oi!" She grabbed one chip and threw it at him, annoyed "Look who's talking, Mr I-love-my-Burrito-night-each-Friday. Moreover, you talk as if I didn't know about her."

He raised an eyebrow "You did? He actually told you about the other girls he had inside this box of his?"

"Yeah." _Well, only Sarah Jane, but I'm not about to tell him that_ "And there's no need to make it sound so… seedy."

Just as Mickey was about to respond, the jubilant cry of the Doctor interrupted them. They stood up and ruched to the other table in time to see the robot shake his head and move his ears, similar at what a real dog would do when woken up from a nap.

"Master." K9 stated, looking at the Doctor

"He recognises me!" he said in gleeful surprise.

"Affirmative."

"Rose, give us the oil." He extended his palm and she put the vial on it. He was quick to unscrew the tap, the liquid inside wobbling dangerously and nearly winced

"Are you sure you should touch it? That dinner lady got all scorched."

He raised his gaze indignant "I'm no dinner lady. And I don't often say that." He touched the oil with his forefinger, shooting Rose a look that clearly said 'I told you so' and smeared it onto K9's sensor

"Oil. Ex-ex-extract ana-analysing…"

"Listen to it, man!" Mickey exclaimed "That's a voice!"

"Confirmation of analysis. Substance is Krillitane Oil."

The Doctor pulled a face between shock and annoyance and took off his glasses "They're Krillitanes…"

"That's bad?"

"Very." He rubbed his temples "Think of how bad things could possibly be, then add another suitcase full of bad. They're a composite race. Just like your culture is a mixture of traditions from all invaded countries, the Krillitanes are the same. However, they take the physical aspects as well. They cherry-pick the best bits from the people they destroy; that's why I didn't recognize them. The last time I saw them they were like us, but with really long necks."

"And what are they doing here, then?" Rose wondered.

"They're doing something to the children." He said, horrified.

The Doctor stood up and went outside the chippy, the three following shortly, Sarah Jane carrying the robot. Once outside, the Doctor fell some steps behind the group, glancing Rose meaningfully. She strode to him and looked at him questioningly.

"I talked to Sarah Jane." He cleared his throat and rubbed his nape "About her rude comments from before. You- you know that I don't mind, right? That you have no memories. Well, it's not that I don't mind- I mean, I want you to regain them, but I won't kick you out if you don't. Does it make sense? I'm getting the vibe as I'm not making any sense right-"

"Doctor." She stopped him. God, he had a gob "It's okay, I understand, and I know. You didn't have to, but I'm grateful. Moreover, it was your time to catch up."

"Oh, we did. She's still investigating, that's why she bumped into some strange reports of the school and decided to snoop around. We talked about my… sudden departure to Gallifrey. Had a hard time forgiving me."

"Understandable, Time Lord."

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech startled them both. Krillitanes were flying above them, preparing themselves to charge at them. The group ran, deciding to stay at Sarah Jane's place for the night, then slip inside the school in the morning.

Once dawn tinted the sky in soft blue light, everyone resumed their positions, and that's how Rose found herself looking at Sarah fiddling with the screwdriver the Doctor had lend them to crack open the computers. She didn't seem to have much luck.

"Damn," she cursed, "This thing used to work back then."

"Not your fault, he's probably added 100 new settings since then, but he still misses to install the setting for wood. God knows we've had problems just because of that. Here, lemme."

The older woman eyed her uncomfortably as she worked. She cleared her throat "Um, sorry about yesterday. It was uncalled for, but at the time I didn't know about your… _condition_, and I stepped in the line."

"Don't sweat it. I know why you did it and I don't blame you for it. As for the memories, I've had time getting used to, so it doesn't bother me anymore. Hasn't stopped me from travelling. You spent a lot of time travelling with him, right? Any special adventures you'd like to share?" she asked playful

"Well, I've fight against mummies." She looked at her challenging

She huffed, amused "I've met ghosts."

Soon, it became a competition.

"Robots. Lots of robots."

"Slitheen. In Downing Street."

"Daleks!"

She scoffed "Met the Emperor."

"Anti-matter monsters."

"Gas masked zombies."

"Real living dinosaurs!"

"Real living werewolf!"

"The Loch Ness monster!"

At that Rose stopped abruptly and looked at her disbelievingly "Really?" she asked curious. Both of them burst into laughter at their petty competition, soon in tears.

"Look at us, competing over every tiny thing. As if it would make a difference."

The blonde woman chuckled "If you've travelled with the Doctor long enough, you know who his hearts belong to. When he was with you, did he do that thing where he'd explain something at, like, ninety miles per hour, and you'd go 'what?', and he'd look at you like you'd just dribbled on your shirt?"

Sarah Jane cackled and nodded, unable to answer, "Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?"

"Yeah! Yeah, he does! I'm like 'do you two want to be alone?'"

Both of them laughed hysterically, their initial wariness long forgotten. Unfortunately (for the Doctor), he chose that moment to walk in the room, and both women cackled even more at the sight of his face.

"What?" He asked, but both women ignored him. He looked around, trying to pinpoint what made them lose it like that, but he couldn't see anything "What is it? Listen, I need to find out what's programmed inside these."

They took no notice of him and fell into each other, laughing hysterically, Rose pointing the sonic screwdriver at him comically.

"What? Stop it!" he whined.

When the two of them calmed down, he tried to crack open the computer, but unfortunately was fixed with a deadlock seal. Suddenly, the screen switched on, and familiar symbols began flashing before their eyes. The Doctor's face contorted in horror when he realized it was the Skasis Paradigm, and they were using the children to crack it. He was in the middle of his explanation when the Headmaster decided to intervene.

"Think of it, Doctor," he tried to convince him "With the Paradigm solved, reality becomes clay in our hands. We can shape the universe and improve it."

"Oh yeah?" he asked sceptical as he crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at him "The whole of creation with the face of Mr. Finch. Call me old fashioned, but I like things as they are."

"You act like such a radical, and yet all you want to do is preserve the old older. Think of the changes that could be made if this power was used for good."

"What, by someone like you?"

"No. someone like you." that was something any of them expected. Mr. Finch took his chance and continued, "The Paradigm gives us power, but you could give us wisdom. Become a god. At my side. Imagine what you could do – think of the civilisations you could save. Perganon, Assinta, your own people, Doctor. Standing tall. The Time Lords, reborn."

Sarah Jane spoke urgently, trying to ease the desperation and the slight doubt held in his eyes "Doctor, don't listen to him!"

Then the Headmaster looked at the other teacher, playing his cards carefully. He had seen with his own eyes how important the little human was for the Doctor, and he was going to use it for his advantage.

"And you could be with him throughout eternity. Young, fresh, never wither, never age… never die. Their lives are so fleeting. So many goodbyes. How lonely you must be, Doctor. Join us."

"I… could save everyone."

"Yes."

"I could stop the war."

Rose bit her lip, worried at how tempted he seemed. She remembered the golden particles swimming in her eyes, and a part of her cried inside her to ask for their help. However, most of her rebelled at how wrong it was to succumb at their sweet talk.

It was a decision she would've loved to avoid. She would've loved to be selfish, to say sod off the universe, but she knew better than that. He wouldn't forgive himself in the end, and neither would she.

"Doctor." She squeezed his hand, calling his attention. His dark eyes darted to her face "Don't do it. Everything has a start, and everything has to come to an end. All things come to dust. The joy of life is the journey, and that's what moves the heart, not the duration of it. Some people live more in two years than others do in eighty" she smiled slightly trying to make him understand. Then, in a lower voice, she whispered only for him to listen "You already have the weight of the lives of so many people on your shoulders, don't make that burden heavier."

He closed his eyes painfully, her words swimming inside the whirlwind of his thoughts. It was terrifyingly easy to give in, to have what he thought was prohibited, but then again, she wouldn't forgive him if he did so.

He wasn't a good man, but he could try, for her.

He dropped her hand and gripped the chair in front of him. With a swift movement, he smashed the screen of the PC. Before Mr Finch could react, though, he ushered both women out of the room.

The three of them made their way through the halls of the school, the angry mob of aliens tailing them close. They bumped into Mickey in their way, and one of the kids, and when they were about to be cornered, a red beam shot out and took out one of the Krillitanes.

"K-9!" Sarah Jane cried happily

"Suggest you engage running mode, mistress."

The Doctor managed to open the locked doors "Come on! K-9, hold them back!"

"Affirmative, master. Maximum defence mode!"

He led them out of the door with a shout. They sprinted down the hall again and ended up in the physics lab, the Doctor slamming the door behind them and locking it with his screwdriver. Together, they came into a plan of using the oil against them, but first they had to reach the kitchens.

And the fact that the door was being clawed by angry aliens who wanted to feast with them didn't help.

"Okay, we need to get to the kitchens. Mickey-"

"What now, hold the coats?" Said man interrupted, clearly fed up with the way he treated him

"Get all the children unplugged and out of the school. Now then, bats, bats, bats, how do we fight bats?"

The boy, Kenny was his name, rolled his eyes and set the fire alarm off. The Doctor laughed and beamed at him before rushing to the door and unlocking it. Everyone made their way past the weak Krillitanes and down the corridor.

Once reached the kitchen, the Time Lord hurried over to the barrels, attempting to open them with his sonic, but he bumped into a deadlock seal.

"The vats would not withstand a direct hit from my laser. But my batteries are failing."

"Right." He said, darting his eyes around him "Everyone out the back door. K-9, stay with me."

They darted out the door, but Sarah Jane hesitated. Rose grabbed her arm and made her follow them. The older woman looked back briefly before nodding and following her. Just as they reached the outside, the first explosions could be heard.

"Where's K-9?" Sarah Jane asked in meek voice, afraid of the answer

The Doctor looked down at her guiltily and shook his head "I'm sorry, Sarah Jane."

She tried to shove it off "It's all right. He was just a… daft metal dog. Fine, really."

But she couldn't fool them for long, and warm tears streamed down her face. The Doctor put his arms around her as the four of them, and the school students, watched the school burn to crisp.

.-.-.-.-.-.

When the Doctor and Rose made their way inside the burnt school to retrieve the TARDIS, they didn't immediately travel outside, but they spent a day rebuilding K-9 for Sarah Jane. Well, the Doctor was; Rose just passed him the tools he asked for.

When they finished, the Doctor landed the TARDIS on a park nearby and he quickly hid the robot behind the spaceship. Mickey found them quickly, Sarah Jane following soon afterwards, looking the console room with wonder.

"You've redecorated!" she exclaimed

"Do you like it?"

"I do, yeah. I preferred it as it was, but uh… yeah, it'll do!" she smiled at them.

"I love it." Rose added from her position in the commander's seat

Sarah Jane suddenly remembered something "Hey you! What's forty seven times three hundred and sixty nine?"

_Seventeen thousand, three hundred and forty-three. _"No idea." She smiled at her, concealing her lie. "It's gone now- the oil's faded."

"But you're still clever." She recalled every bit of information she had gathered about her in the adventure. She was wonderful, indeed. "More than a match for him."

"You and me both." She eyed the Doctor, giving him a short nod

The Doctor picked up her signal "Oh, um, we're about to head off, but… you could come with us."

"No… I can't do this anymore. Besides, I've got a bigger adventure ahead. It's time I've stopped waiting for you and found a life of my own."

"Can I come?" Mickey asked suddenly, and because of the confused look the journalist gave him, he was obligated to add "No, not with you, in the TARDIS. I want to see what's out there."

"Sure by me." Rose agreed "Doctor?"

He looked at the darker man. He'd done quite a good job this time, maybe he could give it a try. And if he managed to put a distance between him and those scary feelings he was developing towards Rose, the better.

"Okay, then. I could do with a laugh."

"Well, right. Now before I go, can I have a word with Rose?" she pulled her aside, ignoring the curious glance the Doctor shot at them. "You're staying with him, aren't you?"

Rose suddenly looked at her intensely. She seemed hesitant to speak, but she picked up her resolve.

"Seventeen thousand, three hundred and forty-three. That's your answer." She looked at her in the eye, and observed how realisation dawned upon her

"Wha…?"

"I don't know what's going on with me, Sarah Jane. I did something really dangerous a while back. The Doctor said it shouldn't have affected me, but it did, and I can't tell him because it'll be dangerous for him. And I don't know what to do…"

The older woman looked at her and made a decision. She asked for Rose's phone and typed her phone in it, saving her contact "Here's my phone number. It's clear you need someone to talk to, so when you have some free time, don't doubt to give me a call. And if you need to one day, find me. Just, remember—some things are worth getting your heart broken for."

Rose nodded and hugged her "Will do. Talk to you soon."

Sarah Jane and the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS for him to give her his last surprise, while Rose showed Mickey around. He soon found his new room and she left him there. She made her way to her room and quickly jumped on the mattress, emotionally drained.

She looked up at her phone and smiled softly, remembering their bonding time trying to open the computers, and imagined her face when she found her brand-new K-9 waiting for her. Oh, she will cause much more mayhem.

And she was sure Sarah Jane would keep on being fantastic.


	28. Pahasusi

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 22. Pahasusi**

_"__I have many names, as you do."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

It had been four hours since they left Earth to drift through the time vortex. As they'd had quite a restless night, the two humans on board asked him for a break before they resumed their travelling, and they were at their respective rooms, resting.

The Doctor, on the other hand, had been tinkering absent-mindedly in the kitchen with what had been a toaster and a laser spanner. If his invention exploded once or twice, he didn't notice, so engrossed in his own thoughts he was.

He was actually reviewing at every possible angle what had happened in their latter adventure.

He was reluctant to admit he'd been _really _tempted to accept Mr Finch's offer. Not for the universe, not for his species, but for the pink and yellow human that was standing at that moment beside him. And that terrified him.

He had realized he felt much more for her than what he'd felt towards any companion. He'd made excuses before, convincing himself that they were just best mates, but that last adventure made him perceive just how he was fooling himself, as their relationship could no longer be defined as friendship.

He couldn't allow himself to feel that way. She would leave sooner or later, either finding something better that gave her a reason to stay behind or because she… because she…

And that was a fact. Even if she decided to stay with him as long as her body took her, she'd leave him too soon. The lifestyle they leaded was really dangerous, and even though she managed to stay alive, she'd wither and die. Seventy hypothetical years were just a blink in a Time Lord's lifespan, and when she left, it would destroy him.

Therefore, he had to put distance between them, for both of their sakes. They had already stepped on the line and jumped ahead, it was his responsibility to fix it.

The laser toaster shocked him, making him yelp and drop his screwdriver in pain. Soft giggles came from behind and he shot his head up – Rose was standing at the doorway, wearing distractingly tight jeans, a pink hoodie and a pink T-shirt that really brought up the colour of her cheeks-

_Stop it, Time Lord!_

"You got bored of the sonic toaster, then?" she joked "Wait, is that Jack's spanner?"

"Yes. Where's Mickey?" he replied curtly. Rose seemed thrown off by his tone.

"I've just bumped into him. He was about to get changed, so he should be ready in a minute or so."

"Right. I'll be preparing the TARDIS; when he finishes, bring him to the console room."

And with that he left, not even giving her a second glance. She looked at his back questioningly, but shrugged it off, thinking that he was just wishing to get on the move again, after being stranded for days at one place.

She then went closer to the Doctor's newest knickknack and observed it. It looked like he was in the middle of building it; peeled wires stuck out of it, and did she smell smoke? To be honest, it seemed like the Doctor needed something to fiddle with while he waited, and he didn't have the intention of making anything that actually worked.

She frowned when she spotted the sonic lying beside the invention. Did he forget grabbing it? Finding it strange, she pocketed the tool, making a mental note to return it to him.

She made herself a quick cuppa and nibbled distractedly a cookie when Mickey made an appearance. He'd decided to take a shower by the looks of it, and he was wearing a different T-shirt than before, quite possibly one that the TARDIS provided.

She handed him a mug filled with tea "Here you are; it's already warm. Drink it fast, though; the Doctor's anxious to land."

Mickey nodded, trying to shake off the drowsiness he felt, and took the mug. They sipped it in silence, and when they finished, they left the cups in the sink.

"So," Mickey tried to start a conversation "I forgot to ask you, did you stop bleaching your hair?"

"Yeah, I guess." she looked at her honey locks "Didn't feel like me anymore, so I dyed it to a more natural colour. What do you think?"

They stepped into the console room "It's weird, but I'll get used to it, I guess."

"Finally!" the Doctor exclaimed rather rudely, "I thought the experiment in the auxiliary bathroom had eaten you. I took the liberty to land while I waited."

"We've landed?" Rose gasped "I've haven't felt a thing."

He sniffed and found himself unable to shoot a grin at her "I'm just _that_ impressive."

"Oh, yeah? Says the man who aimed for Sheffieldin 1979 and ended in Scotland in 1879."

He groaned "Just once! A man makes a mistake just once and he's reminded of it forever."

A cough behind them stopped their playful banter and the Doctor was reminded of his self-imposed task. He mentally kicked himself. What happened to the 'I'm going to put some distance between us' thing?

Straightening up his back, his face a perfect calm mask, he addressed an uncomfortable-looking Mickey. "Right. So brand new world outside; Mickey, would you do the honours?"

Shooting a wary look at them – which he'd undoubtedly deny ever making later – he walked to the closed doors and opened them hesitantly. Outside, a rowdy street with a colourful market greeted them, where people of different species chatted animatedly with one another.

The sun shone brightly from above, and the green sky was clear of clouds. She loved that part of travelling – stepping into an unknown place, finding the similarity and differences with Earth… just throwing herself into it. But for the looks of it, Mickey was having a difficult time getting his head around it.

"It's a lot to take in, I know, but you'll get used to it." she assured him. He nodded in thanks

The Doctor closed the door behind them and frowned. Something wasn't right. He headed to where both humans were standing and shrugged the feeling. Whatever it was, he'd probably bump into it sooner or later.

"So, Doctor, where are we?" Rose asked him

"You won't believe it, but we're in Woman Wept."

She twirled around, facing him completely "You're having me on, right? But it's really hot in here!"

"I remember you telling me something about this place." Mickey butted in "Didn't you say it was totally frozen, or something?"

"Yeah, but that's Woman Wept _after_ it was frozen. This was a tropical planet initially. A human ship discovered it some centuries ago and they funded the first colony on the planet. More species came and went, and in years it became one of the most popular vacation destinations of the 38th century."

"But then something happened with their sun, right?"

"Yeah. The sun suddenly turned into a white dwarf, and the surface froze in mere minutes. Never discovered what happened. Anyway!" he clapped his hands "Bright new planet waiting to be explored. What are we waiting for?"

"Are there any rules we have to follow for not getting killed? Any food we've to avoid?" Mickey asked looking at the fruit stands near them.

"Avoid the Papua – it does a really nasty job with your digestive system. Anything else, you can have it. Have fun!"

Said man shot them a look before he got lost in the noisy market. The Doctor began wandering, Rose hot on his tail, frowning. He was avoiding her; that, she'd noticed. It was on his behaviour this morning, shut off all the sudden, and in the way he kept himself two steps ahead of her, not even grabbing her hand.

"Doctor." She called him. He didn't turn around, just hummed in acknowledgement "Is something wrong?"

He threw her a look and slowed down "No, not at all. I'm just looking around for something that could be useful for the TARDIS. Who knows, maybe I could find the transponder wave extrapolator."

"Doctor, I didn't fall for the whatever-ator excuse for the first time, why do you think I'd fall now? I saw you frowning when you came out of the TARDIS, and I know how you try to distract people with your mumbo-jumbo when you're hiding something. Something's wrong and you're not telling us."

How did she manage to pick up so much? A small part of him was proud of her, secretly happy that she knew him so much, but he soon muffled it. He couldn't allow it. He had to return to the comfortable friendship they had before those stupid… _feelings_ came.

Despite everything, he had to tell her. She had already noticed something wasn't right, and her stubbornness would make her bump straight into trouble. He sighed and stopped.

"Something's wrong. I noticed when I stepped out of the TARDIS; time is shifting, changing. But it's probably nothing, probably two strong timelines converging together. Nothing to worry about. Now let's go, we don't want Mickey get lost in his first trip, do we?"

He didn't even give her time to react, and in seconds she lost sight of him in the crowd. She stopped and rubbed her temples. He was fleeing, that, she knew, but of what? What was going on inside that complex mind of his that tried to push her away from him?

It hurt, it really did. It wasn't a secret what were her feelings towards the Time Lord; even Mickey had seen it half a year ago, and he hadn't been around much. It had been pretty obvious to everyone… but him, apparently.

After the Sarah Jane incident, she'd thought they'd gotten closer than ever before – his words inside the cupboard still rung in her ears – but then he went and did what he'd promise he would never do to her; he was leaving her behind. Not abruptly, sure, but how else could she interpret what he was doing?

_The nerve of him._ She thought angered; _you want to do the saving of people alone? Well, have it your way. _

She strolled down the street fuming, unaware of the shadows that were tailing her. When she was near a dark alley, a strong hand pressed a napkin on her face and a sweet smell filled her nostrils before the world tilted and turned black.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor felt guilty. Very guilty. He'd seen the sad look Rose shot his way when he'd left her behind, and his mind had found an entertainment in tormenting him in any way possible for it, when he had to be concentrating on the task in hand.

He had to find out about the jumping timelines he'd detected before, but he could only think on how her usually rose cheeks went white in horror, and how her eyes had moisten up in realization. He pushed those thoughts aside as hard as he could; there was something much more important going on here than his inability to control his feelings.

Because that's what it was. He shouldn't feel how he felt about her, he was just a lonely man that destroyed every life he came in contact with. She could be happy now, but everyone left in the end, and she would too. She would realize what he does to people, and she would hate him.

And he would be alone. Before he would've told you he was better that way, but not after Rose. It was now he realized how _dependant_ he was on her, how he needed the warmth of her smile to keep going. She made the loneliness in his head better, and he was so utterly afraid of what would happen if she lost all of it.

He knew he was the one who decided that the distance was the solution, but was it really? It had been mere hours since he'd made the decision, and in his hearts he already felt it was the worst mistake he'd ever made.

He shook his head. It was the best, if not for both of them, for her. He would protect her from everything, even from him.

He felt the timelines shifting once again and he got on guard. Right. He had to find the source of the shifting and solve it as soon as possible. There had been a change in the past of Woman Wept, and if he didn't intervene, the future of the whole planet could change.

He tried to follow the shifting with his Time sense, blocking out almost everything else around him. Somewhere deep inside his mind registered that he had bumped into something, or someone, but he didn't stop until someone tugged his arm rather forcefully.

He blinked twice, casting away the confusion that came after using his Time sense at full capability. Before him there was a young man – it was more like a humanoid goat – shooting him worried looks. He mildly wondered what had made him look so concerned, but he realized it'd be something quite normal after seeing someone walking on autopilot. Yeah, his fault.

"Are you okay, mate?" the worry was palpable in his voice, but there was something hidden under it. It was the way he kept darting his eyes around them, as if expecting to see something.

"Yeah. I had my head in the clouds. Sorry for bumping into you."

He tried to leave and continue his search, when the grip of the man became stronger. The warning look he shot at him made him pause.

"What's your name?"

"I'm the Doctor."

"Are you alone?"

"No, I came with some friends." He answered confused. Was he…? He wasn't hitting on him, was he?

He glanced around again, and replied afterwards "Go find them as soon as you can, and never leave each other's sides while you're here. And when you finish your business in this planet, leave as quickly as possible."

"Why? What's going on here?"

"My partner Frisk and I came here in a vacation. Everything was going well, but…" he paused, guilt crossing his face "We had a bit of a row, and I left the room to have some air. When I returned to the hotel we were staying, Frisk had disappeared without a trace. That was two days ago."

"Couldn't have your friend just left, angry?"

He shook his head "At first I thought that was the case, but as I spent time here, I began noticing people round here are always – and I mean always – with someone else. I couldn't see anyone alone. Then I met a guy named Napsta who had experienced the same as I had – his little sister had ran ahead, and that's when it all went wrong."

The Doctor's voice dropped. "What happened?"

"He saw two cloaked men grab her and take her away. He cried for help, but anyone else could even see the kidnappers. He tried to follow them, but it was as if they vanished in thin air. Since he told me, I can see them in the shadows, hiding, waiting for their next victim." He grabbed his arms and looked directly at him "Look from the corner of your eye – you'll see them, the eating shadows."

And indeed he saw them. It was difficult at first, but when he knew what he had to look for, he noticed them roaming in the shadows. They seemed humanoid, but a dark cloak covered their entire figure. He immediately recognized what they used to hide themselves.

"They're wearing perception filters; that's what's keeping them hidden in plain sight. Useful things if you want to go unnoticed, but they're a bit rubbish if you draw attention to yourself. That's also why they take people who are alone; you would notice instantly if someone you're talking to disappeared, but someone who you don't even know? Very unlikely."

The alien frowned "But Napsta was looking at her the whole time when they took his sister. How did they vanish?" he whispered

"It's easy to lose your concentration on a perception filter, more so if you're far away. That's why they wait until the victim is unguarded. They watch in the shadows for foreign people, walking alone at a busy market, maybe nearing some dark alley, and then, zam! It's like they weren't even there."

Then a thought crossed his mind. He thought of everything that had happened since they landed, how similar their situations really were, and dread pooled inside him.

"Rose!"

He began rushing through the busy marketplace, desperately looking for the blonde woman. She wasn't where he had last seen her, nor near the stalls.

Despite being a rather tiny square, he couldn't find her anywhere, and that hadn't happened ever before. Why had he been so bloody stupid!? Here he was, feeling sorry for himself and Rose could be in immediate danger!

He ran his hand through his wild locks, making his hair stand in all directions. The goat-like alien soon caught up with him, panting. He began looking from all directions, and soon spotted a familiar face.

"Mickey!" he called him. Said man turned around and walked towards them, with a questioning look on his face

"Hi, boss. Is it time to leave already? And who's your friend?"

The Doctor ignored his questions and steadied him by his shoulders "Have you seen Rose?" he asked, desperation leaking in his voice

"Uhh, no. Wasn't she with you?"

"We got separated. Now, this is important. Do you remember seeing her since we landed? Maybe looking at some stand or buying?"

"No, I don't think so. What the hell is going on, Doctor?"

He paced around, clenching his fists "Someone's kidnapping people, and it's possible they've taken her."

"Um," the alien interjected "Could you describe her? Maybe I can help."

"What's your name?" the Doctor asked, noticing for the first time that the man had followed him.

"Asriel."

"Okay, Asriel. She's human, has golden hair and hazel eyes. She was wearing a grey hoodie with a pink top, skinny jeans and black trainers. About a head shorter than me."

"I've seen her." The words of the vendor near them made the three of them stop and look at him. He continued "She was looking at that wristband over there – said she'd come later for it. Then, she went near Joyce's stand over there, and when I blinked she wasn't there."

The Doctor looked in the direction he pointed. There, in the shadows of a dark alley, a person watched them ravenously. However, when he noticed the Doctor was looking directly at him, he faltered and tried to escape.

There was no way the Doctor would lose his only hint if it was in his power, so he began running after him, not even caring if both men followed him. The shady person began making quick turns and leaps, trying to lose them with the help of the perception filter, but the Doctor's mind was too advanced to fall for it after him acknowledging it.

_Don't worry, Rose_, he thought, _I'm coming._

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose opened her eyes to find herself in a dirty dungeon. Again. She blinked repetitively to try to shrug off the fog in his head. She tried to move her hands, only to find out she was strapped to the surface she was lying on. Well, it wasn't the first time, and neither the last.

When she felt her mind clear enough, she remembered what had happened hours before she'd been taken. The Doctor leaving her behind, and those psychos using chloroform to drag her away. Why she always was the one taken, she had no idea.

She looked around the room, and felt a pang of sadness when she couldn't find the Doctor beside her. They usually ended arrested or kidnapped together and – as ill as it sounds – not having him near took away most of the fun. All because, she remembered, he decided to be a git.

So the plan she had at the moment was: one, escape from the evil wannabe monk's dungeon; and two, find the Doctor and slap him until he stopped doing… whatever that was.

"You're awake, then." A soft voice asked some metres away from her. She turned her head to see a man strapped to a metal surface, probably one similar than the one she was on. His hair was knotted, and his stripped shirt was torn.

"Yeah. How long have I been out?"

"Less than an hour. It's strange, though. The chloroform's effect often lasts longer than that."

She shrugged, or tried to, with her hands tied. "Where are we?"

"I haven't got the faintest. I've been here for two days, and the only thing I've been able to gather is that this place is huge, and that they don't care what their victims are. When I came here, there was a little girl and an old woman. They seem to take one of us each day, for what, I couldn't tell you."

"Have you seen how our captors look like?"

He shook his head "They come here covered from head to toe with those magenta robes, and they don't utter a word. They're like robots, or, or ghosts."

Rose sighed at the lack of information. She realized she wasn't going to discover anything else trapped down here, so the next step was to escape. But how? Those handcuffs were too tight – she couldn't even consider to reach the tools on the stool at her side.

Then something came to her mind. The sonic screwdriver! She never got the opportunity to return it to its rightful owner, so the device was still resting inside her right pocket. But would she be able to reach it?

Twisting her wrist almost painfully, she managed to sneak her fingers inside the cloth and touch the metallic surface, curling them around the cold device. She took it out carefully in order not to drop it to the floor, and let out a cry of victory when the sonic was finally resting on the palm of her hand. Now, she just had to find the right setting.

"Hey." She called for his attention "What's your name?"

"Frisk."

"Okay, Frisk. I may have a way to get us out of here, so give me some time and we'll be getting out of here."

Frisk's face brightened "Really? God, I hope so. I don't want to leave Asriel alone. He's been feeling down because of his parent's divorce, and it was my idea to come here, you know, to cheer him up."

"What's he like?" she asked, rolling carefully the sonic in her search for the buttons

"He's really sweet, and a worrywart." He smiled "He's stubborn too, must've come from his goat descendants." At her confused look, he added "He's half goat-half human. We had a bit of a fight before I was… you know. God, I'm sure he thinks it's his fault"

"Don't worry, we'll be out of here soon."

However, before she could fiddle with the settings, they heard soft steps approaching, and Rose had to hide the sonic inside her sleeve. Soon, two cultist went into the room, and headed directly to Frisk, who looked resigned.

"Where are you taking him!?"

The boy shot her a warm but sad smile "I forgot to tell you… the ones that go never come back. It was nice meeting you, even if it was for a short time."

"No!" No matter how much she struggled against her restraints or how much she shouted, their captors didn't even shoot a glance at her. She cursed and hit the metal stretcher.

When she couldn't hear their steps anymore, she took out the screwdriver and tried to remember some of the settings the Doctor had taught her. Was the metal melting the 334B or 157A? She couldn't afford losing time like this, so she pressed the button and prayed for it to work.

She almost cried when she heard the soft click of her now open handcuffs. She quickly undid the rest of them and sprung up, ready to go find Frisk. But before she left the room, she spotted a metal crowbar leaning on the wall. She grabbed it for protection and finally left.

The corridors seemed to go on forever. She felt she'd walked for miles, and still hadn't found anything more than closed doors. She was about to try to open one of them with the crowbar, when she heard soft muttering. She tried as best as she could to hide in the doorway, and when the cultist came near her, she hit him with the crowbar in the head, hard enough to make him unconscious, but not drawing blood.

She rummaged his pockets, and found a set of master keys hanging from his robe. She opened the door on her left and dragged the unconscious man inside. She then undressed him – the cloak could be helpful to hide herself around these parts – and tied him up.

Half in the process to put on the robe, the guy groaned and tried to rub his sore head, only to find his hands bound together.

"Good morning, sunshine." She mocked him

"What… wait! You're the prisoner!"

"Yep." She finished dressing up "Now, would you be so kind to tell me what the hell is this place?"

The boy looked torn, but he sighed in the end "You're inside the main gaol of the Pahasusi cult. My cousin Nate told me to join – said they would give us a lot of cash, but it has been two weeks since I joined, and I haven't seen a single credit."

"What about the reason why you kidnap people?"

"I've got no idea. We're just ordered to take people, no questions asked. I tried to get out of this bunch of weird psychos, but they threatened to kill me if I stepped out these tunnels without permission. I just wanted to give Nana a good home…" his voice strangled at the last part, and Rose couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He was just at the wrong place, in the wrong time.

She loosened up his restrains, but before he stood up, she shot him a wary look "I'm letting you go. Get out of here as soon as you can, and never come back."

"Thank you, miss. Thank you so much. Do you want me to show you the nearest exit?"

"Nah." She put on the hood of the cloak "I've still got something to do here."

With that, she left in her search to find Frisk before it was too late.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor, Mickey and Asriel stood in front of what it seemed to be the entrance of a service tunnel. They had lost the cloaked man, but they were near enough to spot the hidden door. Moreover, his Time sense was pointing at him at the same direction, so whatever was going on with the timelines had something to do with the kidnappings.

He patted his pockets in search of the screwdriver, and came empty-handed. Where had he…?

He muttered a word the TARDIS didn't bother to translate when he remembered where exactly was his screwdriver. On the kitchen table, beside the broken toaster. He'd left it there in his urge to put some distance between Rose and himself, and every minute that passed had more problems trying to remember why he thought it was a good idea to begin with.

Mickey seemed to notice his discomfort, and nodded at the door. "Well? How do we go in?"

"I don't have the sonic on me, so I guess I'll have to do it in the old-fashioned way. I'm sure I still have my kit for opening locks somewhere inside my pockets…"

He began searching inside his multi-dimensional pockets, but in a blink of the eye, Asriel took the initiative and kicked the door open.

"… or we could do that. Nice hooves."

"Perks of being half goat. Frisk and your friend are inside, right? What are we waiting for?"

They travelled down the dirty corridors, trying to find any clue that could lead them to their friends. They arrived to an open room full of metal stretchers, a set of handcuffs on every one of them. There were dried blood on almost all of them.

"Here's where they must keep the people they take." The Doctor mused, anger raising inside him "They tie them up here, but then they take them elsewhere. What for? And why not take them directly?"

"Because they only take one at a time." A familiar female voice spoke from the doorway. They turned around to see Rose wearing one of the dark robes, eyeing at them with an eyebrow raised. "Look what the cat dragged in, the Oncoming Storm."

"Rose!" in a second, she was engulfed in the Time Lord's embrace. She could feel his desperation and relief in the way his arms trembled, how his grip tightened, and all her anger – well, most of it – slipped away.

"Remind me later to apologize for being so daft." He asked her against her hair, his voice strangled

"I'll make sure of it." they separated, but the Doctor's hands still rested on her hips, keeping her close to him. She then looked at the other two men, and took note of the other alien's appearance "Are you Asriel?"

He nodded "Have you seen Frisk!?"

"Yep. They've taken him, so we don't have much time. I'll explain everything while we walk."

"I'm quite sure of the direction we have to take, if my assumptions are correct." At their look of confusion, he tapped his head "Time sense. Now, let's go."

The Doctor led them outside, guiding their group through the empty passageways, hand in hand with Rose. The only sound they could hear was the dripping of a lonely gutter and their steps on the hard stone.

"Right." She began "I woke up strapped in one of those nasty tables, and Frisk was beside me. He told me we hadn't been the only ones – there had been two people with him before. They take one person every day. Then, I remembered I snagged your screwdriver off the table this morning, meant to give it back to you – right, here you are." She returned it to him, who flipped it with ease before pocketing it. "Before I could get out, though, they came and took Frisk with them."

"And what about those robes?" he eyed her up and down

"When I escaped, I bumped into a cultist and hit him in the head. Thought it'd be a good disguise, so I took it."

He smiled down at her proudly "Well thought out, Rose."

She returned the smile "Well, I'm just too good. Anyway, the boy woke up while I was finishing putting the cloak on, and we spoke a bit. He told me they were the Pahasusi cult; he'd joined just to get money for his gran. They hardly ever spoke with the big guys, just were ordered to take people. They don't know one bit of what's going on, Doctor."

"I guessed so. We followed one of the cultist on his way here, and he seemed terrified of being caught out. However, someone here is changing the normal time stream of the planet, and I don't like where it's heading now. We've got to stop them."

"That's what got you all frowny when we landed?"

"Mostly, yeah."

She shot him a curious look, but he dismissed it for later. The feeling was getting stronger every minute, and it was starting to give him a headache.

A loud scream startled all of them, and Asriel paled "That's Frisk!" he lurched forward, but Mickey grabbed him

"Whoa, mate, wait a minute there. You can't just go barrelling in like a madman!"

"Mickey's right." Rose said "I know you care deeply for him, but we have to think about how to do things right. It won't help him if we just rush inside and get caught."

"B-but… he shouldn't be there, it's my fault." His shoulders began shaking, and Rose put a comforting hand on his arm.

They approached the door, and the Doctor opened it with a soft click. Once the door was open, they could hear the cultist talking, and they could see what was inside. There were four cultists inside, plus Frisk, who was strapped to a chair. He had a machine on the top of his head, and he was slumped forward, but still breathing.

What caught her eye was the column of light in the centre of the room. It was a metre high, give it or take, and its design reminded Rose of the TARDIS rotor. It was glowing with blue light, and from it, some wires came out and connected with some computers and the machine on top of Frisk's head.

"That's not good." The Doctor muttered behind her, "That's not good at all. How did they manage to find something like this?"

"What is it?"

"It's the Tear of Isha; Time Lord technology. It's basically a stellar manipulator, it alters the structural composition of stars and is able to increase or decrease the pressure inside it at will and in little time. I thought it was lost in the war…"

"Stellar manipulator? That sounds really dangerous." Mickey said

"It is. But how are they even able to activate it? It needed the energy of two TARDISes combined to switch on…"

Suddenly the men inside began speaking.

"The subject nº148 is prepared. Should we start the machine?"

"Do so." Another one answered. From the distinctive robes, he was probably the leader "We almost have enough energy to finish our Gods' design. Push the button, Delta."

Delta approached the commands and pushed it. The machine started up, only to make a strange sound and switch off. He pushed it again, confused, but the machine didn't react.

"What's going on over there, Delta?"

"I don't know, Alpha! It's not working!"

"Oh, that may be my doing. Sorry about that." The Doctor said from the doorway "Well, it's mostly your fault for not counting how many of you were there. Didn't you notice there were five? That was Rose, by the way. Say hello."

The cultist nearer to the subject took out its hood and the blonde girl waved with a smile on her face "Hello." Another man rushed to help her untie the subject

"She's quite good at using my sonic screwdriver. That's what made the machine behave so strangely. By the way, how did you manage to get the Tear of Isha? It was supposed to be destroyed in the Time War."

Alpha spoke solemnly, not showing any concern on their intervention "The God Pahasusi sent it to us when we still were a little cult trying to protect Woman Wept. It was their blessing to our noble cause."

"And that 'noble cause' involves the destruction of this sun?"

"It is the only way. Before, Woman Wept was free of parasites, but then the human species came, and with them, the other ones and the ground began crying. We just want to stop the infection. We can't return the planet to its original state, but we can free the gods from their confinement."

The Doctor dropped his cheerfulness "You'll destroy the planet with the explosion, and the gravitational pull of this solar system is going to be altered forever, affecting this galaxy. Making things worse, since you don't have the main energy font, you've been scavenging neural energy of people to activate it."

"It was a necessary sacrifice."

"A _necessary sacrifice_!? You're killing people in order to destroy an entire planet! And don't act as if you didn't have a plan to escape; I saw the teleportation pods when I came in."

"You can't stop us."

The Doctor just narrowed his eyes "Oh, just watch me try. Let's begin by tying up all of you, then I'll decide what to do with you. The Shadow Proclamation would have a field day with you."

Mickey and the Doctor began binding the cultists while Rose and Asriel tried to wake Frisk up. Said man regained consciousness, and Asriel swept him up in a fierce hug, asking for his forgiveness.

Suddenly, a tremor shook the room with force, making most of them lose their footing. The column changed from blue to red and began doing grinding noises, similar to a TARDIS. The Doctor faced Alpha and shook his shoulders.

"What have you done!"

Alpha dropped the device he had been holding in his hand the whole time. It was a remote control "It's destiny, you can't change it."

He pushed the man and rushed to the computers, who were blinking because of the excess of input. He put on his glasses with a swift movement and began typing rapidly, overrunning every security code they had put.

"Mickey, put them in the teleportation pod. I've linked it with the Shadow Proclamation, they have already done enough damage here."

He did just that with the help of the half goat, half human, and the four cultists disappeared in a bright light. Rose made sure that Frisk had a grip on himself and rushed to the Doctor's side.

"What can I do?"

"Go to the Tear and tell me which numbers is showing."

She did what she has been told, and she quickly read the numbers that were flashing in the screen "9-5-2-6."

He stopped and looked at her in horror "It's started. The machine is already forming the supernova."

"And what can we do?"

"I could alter the pattern the machine is using, but the sun's gonna die anyway. It won't be a supernova, but I could change it so it formed a white dwarf and…" his eyes widened "Oh, Rassilon."

"What?" Mickey asked

"The white dwarf that froze all Woman Wept; it was me all along. It's either destroy Woman Wept or the galaxy." He said horrified "That were the two timelines that kept jumping, I'm deciding the destiny of a whole planet."

Rose walked to where he was sitting and crouched to look at him in the eyes. She held his hand between hers. "You're not making the choice alone. We're here with you."

"I can't kill another planet, Rose. There are a lot of people in the surface; I can't carry their deaths on my shoulders too." He shook his head

"How much time would we have from you activate the process until the planet freezes?"

"Two hours, three at tops."

"Then we have a chance to evacuate the people. We can go to the TARDIS and tell every city to evacuate. But if you don't do it, not only them, but the people living near this planet will die too." She squeezed his hand "Do it, it's the only way."

"I'd be putting you in more danger." He mumbled.

"And when has that mattered?" she smiled at him softly.

The Doctor's entire demeanour changed. He squared his shoulders and took his hand out of hers, after returning her caring gesture. He stood up and paced around the Tear of Isha, and stopped before the device's keypad.

"Right. We've got a white dwarf to create. Mickey, Asriel, check out for exits of this dungeon, we'll have to be quick. Is Frisk ok?"

Said man answered "I'm a bit wobbly yet, but I'm managing."

"Okay. I'll need you running soon. Are you prepared?"

"Yeah." He stood up and the three men left the room

He began typing on the keypad and glanced at Rose "Rose… can you come here?"

She heard what was hidden under that question. It wasn't just a mild 'Hold that lever steady' or a 'I need you to press this button when I tell you'. He was asking her to stand by his side when he did it, because he needed someone when he pressed the button, and he needed her to hold his hand after he did.

She nodded and stood close to him. He clasped his hand in hers and pressed enter, and the machine changed colour again, this time to an orange hue. He checked everything was alright and rushed outside, never dropping her hand.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The TARDIS orbited around Woman Wept. Only three people stood inside, watching how its surface froze at amazing speeds. It came to Rose's mind the frozen waves she'd seen in her last visit, and she now could imagine how they were created.

It had been two hours and thirteen minutes since the Doctor modified the device. They had rushed outside with the help of the cultist Rose had nicked the cloak from, much to her surprise. They'd warned the city they were in and rushed to the TARDIS, jumping from city to another almost crossing their own time streams, and they'd barely made it before the surface started freezing.

The Tear of Isha would remain underground forever, under a thick layer of ice. It was better this way; no one would be able to lay their fingers on it.

When they finished, they gave Asriel and Frisk a lift to their planet, and they promised to make contact with other victims of the cult. The couldn't do anything to save their beloved ones, but at least they could discover what happened to them.

Mickey left the console room when the planet froze entirely, but the Doctor and Rose stayed. They had shifted so she was resting on his chest, his arms wrapped loosely around her. After the emotional rollercoaster they had both suffered, they needed to stay like this.

"Doctor," she mumbled, not wanting to break the spell they had both fell into, but feeling that it was time to address the matter

"Hm?"

"What was it with you today?"

He looked down at the blonde at his arms, who was still looking outside. Long gone was that confused peroxide-blonde girl he'd found inside his TARDIS; here now stood a woman who had seen the best and worst of the universe, and had faced it head on. She had also seen him at his worst, and hadn't run away.

Today, he'd been the coward. The man who ran of fear of losing her, but that had only put her in danger. He'd put up barriers in an effort to stop her making her way to his hearts, but he hadn't realized that she'd already had, so long ago.

He needed her and that terrified him, but he was more scared of not having her by his side. He would not push away, neither rush things between them. He's just going to be himself, and he would let their relationship develop on its own.

The corner of his lips tugged up in a smile, and he placed a kiss on the top of her hair.

"I don't really know, but it won't happen again."

She turned her head and made his favourite smile, the one who had her tongue between her teeth, teasing and happy.

"Good, because if you do it again, I'll slap you into your next body. Are we clear?" she tried to be stern, but couldn't hide the happiness in her tone

"Yes, ma'am."

So they spent hours chatting and making jokes, just as if nothing had happened, always touching. And when Rose fell asleep, he carried her to her room and tucked her in her bed, watching how her lips twitched upwards in her sleep. He then placed on her bedside table a box, which had the wristband she'd eyed at the market.

And if he kissed her goodnight before leaving, that was just for him to know.

**The one who guesses what Pahasusi means and which language it is, they get an interlude of their liking.**

**B/N (Beta's Note): Hey everybody! BadWolfGirl01 here. I know that you readers think that this is awesome; if you're still reading this far into a fic that means you're enjoying it. So why don't you leave a review to let livinglittlelie know? Speaking as a writer myself, when you see that you have lots of views but hardly any have left reviews, it gets sad. Quickly. You can't imagine the happy dance that occurs when I see I have a review, and I know I'm not the only one! So leave a review, and make everyone happy! :D**


	29. The stone Rose

**Sorry, there was a tiny mistake there, and I had to reupload it.**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 23. The Stone Rose**

_It was as beautiful as time threads, with forbidden words carved on its surface that lost their meaning a long time ago._

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose searched inside her pockets, brought out some coins and proceeded to insert them inside the fancy can. Mickey, having heard the metal clang the coins made when they fell inside, scoffed.

"What are you doing?"

"It's a donation. Have you ever heard about them?" she teased him

"I just don't get why you give them money, if they're obviously well off. I mean, look at this place."

At that, Rose huffed "And you think it's easy to maintain a museum like this? More so if it's free entrance."

The Doctor, who had wandered off in order to grab some pamphlets, snickered "Now kids, don't fight, we're in a public place." He took Rose's hand and offered a museum map, which she took "Anyway, where's your mother? She was the one who told us to come; it's rude to arrive late."

"And who exactly is late, Doctor?" the three time travellers turned around to see a ticked off Jackie Tyler with her arms ajar "You're the one who can't stick with schedules. Last time you came twelve days late!"

"Welllll, the TARDIS picked up that signal and…"

"Don't even try." Then her glare softened and she opened her arms so she could hug Rose, who happily obliged. "Now, how have you been, sweetheart?"

"Oh, fantastic! I have a present for you waiting inside the old girl. But first, why did you ask us to meet you here?"

"I wanted to show you something. Follow me." They began exploring the British Museum, Jackie talking along "Bev's daughter has been working here, giving tours to the children. Then she bumped into something that caught her attention and told her mother, who told me in return. Look, there it is."

In front of them was a white statue. It was a representation of the Goddess Fortuna dated from two thousand years ago, or so said the nametag. It had only one arm holding a horn full of flowers and a few flaws, but what struck the time travellers as odd was her face. It was the vivid image of Rose.

Rose gaped "It-it's me!"

"How can this be possible?" Mickey spluttered

"Well, there are a lot of explanations for it. It could only be a case of genetic multiplicity, and someone on the Roman period shared the same genetic traits as Rose but…" he looked closely to the statue, and with a soft 'aha!' he turned around and removed the hair covering Rose ears, a soft gesture that left her trying to supress a shiver "Look, the same earrings."

She undid the clasp of one of her earrings and held it close to the statue's face "It really is! Does that mean we're going to Ancient Rome sometime?" she asked, jumping in excitement.

"Yep!" the Doctor exclaimed, popping the 'p'.

"Good! I've always wanted to see what was it like." She kept the earring inside her denim jacket, making sure she didn't lose it

"You didn't say the same about the New Roman Empire." The Doctor commented teasingly.

"That's because you were trying to be so impressive, and didn't want to show how flabbergasted I was."

The Doctor smiled tenderly at her, something he tended to do recently, and clasped his hand in hers. After watching the statue for a while, they decided to see the rest of the museum. The Doctor got lost in the Egyptian exhibition and Rose had to drag him out of there, the Time Lord chatting enthusiastically about how many mistakes he'd found in the dating all the while.

They spent the day with Jackie, making up for the time between their visits, and when evening came, they decided it was time to go.

The Doctor eyed his companions. They had landed at the museum just after both humans had woken up, and it had been a pretty calm trip – no running for their lives involved – so that meant they probably had energy for another adventure. He eyed Rose's ear, still missing one earring and grinned. Well, better sort this circular paradox as soon as possible.

"So! It's pretty early yet, right? How about another trip before we call it a day? I don't know… to Ancient Rome, for example."

Rose's eyebrows raised "We're doing Rome now?"

"Well, as I like to say, there's no time like the present. What are we waiting for? Although," he eyed her up and down "You'll have to change into a toga. As far as I know, the Goddess Fortuna didn't walk around in jeans. Well, she does now, but not two thousand years ago. Eris, on the other hand, liked to run around in leggings and dress styles that wouldn't be invented until punk becomes trendy."

She eyed his clothes "Are you going to get changed too?"

"What's wrong with my suit?" he asked confused. At her raised eyebrow, he sighed "Okay. Just this once. I'm sure the TARDIS will provide both of you with fitting clothes."

"Wait. Do I have to wear a dress too?" Mickey questioned

"It's not a _dress_, Mickey; it's a toga. There's a difference. If it makes you feel better, there will be hundreds of people wearing dresses too. Now c'mon! Before it gets late." He headed to his room first, leaving them behind.

"Time machine!" Rose shouted, earning a laugh from the Time Lord.

Rose showed Mickey the way to the TARDIS wardrobe. The time machine instantly shifted the racks, and when they stepped inside, they fell head-on in a sea of tunics with different styles and colours. Mickey picked a white one grumbling, almost forgetting the leather sandals. He left the room muttering in irritation.

Rose looked at her own reflection. She had chosen a light blue toga for herself, which wrapped up around herself just nicely. She did her hair the same style the statue and put on the leather sandals. It was amazing how she resembled the sculpture; the sculptor must have been very good at his job.

She finished her look covering her hair with a TARDIS blue shawl the old girl had provided, and she deemed herself ready to go.

Rose was the last one to step inside the console room, and took her chance to look at both men. She first saw Mickey fidgeting with the toga, clearly uncomfortable with the attire. The Doctor was also wearing a simple white tunic which ended at his knees, the screwdriver firmly tied to the belt.

"So you've got legs under the suit trousers, huh." She teased him

"Yep." He grinned "Now, We've already landed. Are you ready for Ancient Rome?"

With a nod, the Doctor and Rose headed to the door separating them of the outside world. When they noticed that Mickey wasn't following, they both turned around to look at him sceptically.

"I refuse to step out wearing this." he crossed his arms in defiance, his stubborn pose broken when, because of the action, the tunic rolled up and he tried to hide as much skin as he could.

The pair threw each other a look and nodded in agreement. They grabbed both Mickey's arms and pushed him towards the now open doors – the TARDIS being as helpful as possible. The tree of them stepped outside and the doors closed by themselves, giving Mickey no chance of escaping.

"Here it is, Ancient Rome!" the Doctor exclaimed, letting go of the poor guy "And not the nice part of town, for starters."

A loud scream pierced the evening, putting the three time travellers on alert.

"You were sayin'?" Rose quipped, and all of them ran towards the source of the scream

They ran across some dirty streets, and they finally found the cause of the commotion. Three shady men were crowding an elderly bearded man, who was begging on the floor to be left alone. One of the men waved a dagger to his face, and the Doctor felt it was the moment to step in.

"Hey, hey! I don't think this is the proper way to greet a person, do ya'?"

The three attackers turned around to face the Doctor. Rose then took her chance to approach some ceramic amphorae that were on the ground and motioned Mickey to follow her. With a nod, both of them began throwing them at the molesters, who ran with their tail between their legs, pieces of the jars still stuck on their hair and robes.

The Doctor helped the man sit up, checking for wounds. Both humans approached them.

The man spoke after resting a little "I am Gnaeus Fabius Gracillis. I cannot thank you enough for saving my life from those muggers. Even if it is a little, you three are welcomed to my villa anytime."

"Can you stand?" Rose asked concerned

"It may seem that I feel too dizzy to stand at the moment, I am afraid." He shook his head apologetically

The Doctor frowned "How long has it been since you last ate?"

Fabius eyes unfocused, trying to remember "I am not so sure, I've been too absorbed with the search. Yesterday, perhaps."

"Then we're taking you to eat, pal." Mickey stated from where he stood

"My friend is right, a full meal and a jar of drink will do wonders to you."

He shook his head "I would not like to impose…"

"Eat and drink, then you can resume your quest." The Doctor imposed sternly just as if he was a real doctor.

Fabius resigned to their demands and the four made their way to the nearest tavern. After a meal and a cup of warm wine, Fabius told them about what he was looking for. His son Optatus was missing and he had come to Rome in hopes to find him. His search was useless, as he had found no trace of the boy, even at the most 'modern' places where people his age caused mischief.

The owner heard the tale too, and came near them with a wet rag "Have you visited Balbus? People says he has a girl who can tell the future just by looking at the stars."

"A clairvoyant?" the Doctor's attention piqued up, a grin slowly forming on his face

"Yes. They say she has predicted all sort of things from the people from town. Balbus lives just up the hill, if you wish to see him."

"I will. Anything to obtain a hint of my son's location. Thank you so much, sir."

"We will accompany you." the Doctor declared with a big smile on his face

"Oh no, I have imposed enough-"

"There's no need to apologize. I am curious about astrology and people who claim that they can tell the future. Aren't you, Rose?"

"Sure. Do you think it's gonna be vague like the horoscope or something much more concrete?"

He wiggled his eyebrows "There's only one way to find out. Mickey, come along!"

The three time travellers and Fabius made their way uphill to the better part of town. They asked for directions around, and in no time, they were facing Balbus' door. A grumpy man greeted them, his face scowling until they told him they were looking for the future-telling girl. His entire demeanour changed, and he quickly guided them inside.

Vanessa, the clairvoyant, was a fair dark skin girl with clear eyes, and Rose was surprised to find out she was a slave. Balbus treated her with disrespect, as if she was as important as a coffee table, and the Doctor's eyes darkened every time he claimed her ownership.

She began asking questions about Optatus and Fabius tried to be as helpful as he could, but minutes ticked and she hadn't given an answer yet. The Doctor got the feeling she was stalling, and her owner's lashings didn't do any help.

"Do you care to answer this kind man, Vanessa?" Balbus was losing his cool for moments, and the Doctor felt it was time to step in

"Why of course! We're deeply sorry, as we didn't take your powers into consideration. We didn't give you enough information, and for that we're sorry. Do you think seeing the place where he was last seen will help you have a correct vision?"

"Yes, yes." She answered softly, throwing him a grateful look

"But you cannot, sir!" Balbus protested "She is my possession; I will not allow a trip like this without my supervision."

"Maybe Fabius and you can speak of some terms of her… ownership," he said with distaste "If Fabius is interested to make an offer…?"

Some tense moments later, the Doctor, Rose, Mickey, Fabius, and a recently bought Vanessa began their ride to the village. They were on a donkey driven carriage, not very fast but good enough.

Rose chatted with the other girl, trying to get to know her, but she averted the most personal questions. She guessed it was because of her condition of slave, but something about it didn't settle well with her. There was something odd in Vanessa, and she couldn't put her finger on what.

Dusk was tinting the sky with oranges and dark blues when they finally arrived at Fabius' villa. They dismounted the carriage, and Fabius knocked the door. A woman in her mid-forties opened it and asked if they were any news, which Fabius shook his head in response.

"Honourable guests, let me introduce my wife Marcia. Marcia, this kind people have offered his assistance in the search for Optatus. They will stay in the villa with us."

"Good gracious, I thank you on your kind offer. I hope your stay here is comfortable."

"What does he look like? Optatus, I mean. Do you have a… an image of him? It'll make the search easier." Rose asked aloud

"You will be able to see what he looks like tomorrow. Now, the wind is picking up; let us go inside before the chill get into our bones." Marcia opened the doors wider and the five travellers walked inside the warm house.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The next morning, they figured out what Marcia was talking about. In the centre of the villa, a proud sculpture of a young man stood, the white glow of the recently sculpted marble accentuating the heroic pose of a sixteen-looking years old boy.

"That is our boy, Optatus." Fabius explained, his voice wavering "We ordered the building of this sculpture for his approaching birthday, and had managed an appointment with one of the most famous sculptors of the area, but one day he didn't return from the appointment he had with him."

"When was that?"

"Four days ago"

The Doctor hummed, watching the statue closely "It's astonishing how detailed this statue is. Where could I find this sculptor?"

"He's the man that brought the statue at dawn. He's now resting over there." Marcia pointed at an unpleasant looking man who was sitting near the statue. "Master Ursus, would you be so kind to have a word with our guests before you leave?"

Said man raised his gaze and grunted, nodding. As he got up and headed to where they were standing, Mickey took the opportunity to ask the Doctor something.

"Boss, the statue resembled the one of Rose that was at the museum. Do you think he's the one who made it?"

"There's only a way to find out. Good morning, sir." He addressed the bulky man. Rose observed his gloved bulky hands, confused. She'd thought someone who made statues that magnificent should have fine hands.

"What do you want?" his voice was as unpleasant as his demeanour

"I wanted to congratulate you on your work. This statue is marvellous."

"Thank you."

"Optatus modelled for you, didn't he? But wow, I'm impressed at the speed you worked, and the quality of the statue, even if the model was absent half of the time. When did you see him last?"

"Four days ago."

It seemed that the sculptor wasn't a man of words. Nevertheless, the Doctor continued ranting "That's funny; that was the exact date he disappeared. That would make you the last known man to see him."

"I did see him. He came to my studio, then left."

The Doctor hummed, gears whirling inside his head "I have been always been interested to see what the studio of a famous sculptor looks like. Do you think I could do you a visit?"

"No one is allowed in my workshop." He answered harshly. Well, more harshly than before.

"Aww, why not? I promise not to touch anything."

"No one visits my workshop!" he nearly shouted at them.

However, after his outburst, Rose's face caught his attention. He studied her so closely it gave her chills all over her spine, and when he placed one of his big rough hands on her cheek, she did her best to supress a shiver.

"I have been asked to do a statue of a goddess, and you are a perfect model. Come to my studio later, you're the only one allowed inside."

He dropped his hand and left the villa. Rose shook the coldness their encounter had given her and smiled at the Doctor and Mickey. Not only they knew how the statue was made, they also had a lead to the mystery of Optatus' disappearance!

Later that day, Mickey was helping with the horses – he had secretly loved them since he was a child – and the Doctor and Rose were relaxing by the fountain of the central garden. They both observed silently as Vanessa was introduced in the task of her new household with ease.

"Do you think she can really see the future?" the Doctor asked calmly

Rose darted her eyes from the slave to the man beside her "… I don't know. One part of me says 'Of course she can't, don't be silly' but there's something bugging me… and they say she has guessed right some important stuff, hasn't she?"

"I think there's more from our new friend than what it meets the eye."

"And what about Ursus? He gave me the creeps before."

The Doctor frowned "Now, that's an interesting question. For what we've been told, the statue was in their initial stages when Optatus disappeared, his last known location being the workshop, no less. Let's not talk about his speed finishing the statue, not that I'm an expert about it."

"What, really? I would've guessed you got lessons from Michelangelo or something." She raised her eyebrows

"Hmm it's not a bad idea. Maybe some other time. Oi! Mickey!" he called for the dark man, who had just made his way out of the stables

Mickey trotted to where they were sitting "Fabius's gonna organize a patrolling round in order to find more information of his son, and I was thinking about joining them. Can you believe they think I'm a famous gladiator?"

"Not for your build shape, that's for sure." The Doctor muttered, low enough for Mickey but not for Rose, who poked him in retribution

"Go on, then. I know you're just dying to try to ride a horse." Rose smiled at him. Mickey opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it and nodded.

"You coming?"

"Nah." The Doctor answered, "We've got something else to do around here. Meet you here later."

He nodded and left the two of them again. Rose raised an eyebrow at the Doctor, who simply grinned wickedly. "So, as our honourable sculptor hasn't specified at what time you're required to be in his study, what about paying him a visit now?"

It was Rose's time to smile, and hand in hand, they made their way towards the workshop. Inside, a very attractive man who, judging by his clothes, was a slave as Vanessa greeted them.

"Hello! I'm Rose and this is the Doctor. Do you work here?"

"N-no. My name is Tyrus. I was asked by Master Ursus to be a model for one of his sculptures. This is my first sitting."

"Great! I'll be modelling too. Are you going to be a god?"

Rose and Tyrus kept chatting. The Doctor, however, was looking around the workplace. There wasn't a single scrap of stone in the room, not even the dirt you expect in a place like this. "That's strange… you would think that a man getting prepare to do not one, but two statues would have the marble prepared by now, yet there isn't a single stone here."

Suddenly, Ursus entered the room fuming "I remember telling you no one was allowed inside my workplace! No one but my subjects!" he corrected

"Whoa, nelly!" the Doctor raised his arms in surrender and then grimaced, shooting a glance at Rose "Don't ever let me say that again. You forgot to mention at what time we could come to Rose's modelling, we just were kind enough to pass by to concrete it."

"She has to come at third hour after dawn. And alone." He looked pointedly at the carefree man.

"Oh! I forgot to mention! Where are the stones you're going to sculpt? Because if you don't have them yet I know this owner of a marble quarry that-"

"They're on their way." Ursus spat, interrupting him "Now, if you're done snooping around, GET OUT OF MY WORKSHOP!"

The Doctor raised his hands and both of them were pushed towards the exit "Okay! We're going. See? This is us, going out. Although, I couldn't help to notice your tools are in a really good shape."

"I take care of my instruments."

"No, no but there's more than that. They're barely used, and your studio is spotless, something really odd in your profession."

"Out. Of. Here."

"Do you wear those gloves when you sculpt? They're too thick to be comfortable, aren't they?" his words were met with the door slammed in front of him

"Well, that went well," Rose commented jokingly "That sculptor really looks suspicious to me."

The Doctor beamed "Yeah, right? Anyway, let's go meet Mickey and tell him what we've discovered so far."

And they walked their way back together, hands clasped together, as they admired as life in Ancient Rome went by around them.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Vanessa awaked Rose sooner than she expected. She rubbed her beady eyes and fixed some strands of hair that had escaped of their hold in her complicated braids. She had never been a model – not that she remembered, that was – and was an understatement to say she was a bit excited.

When she deemed she looked presentable enough, she asked Vanessa to accompany her to the workshop, and both women made their way to the place of meeting.

Some stores were already opening, and some flowers drew her attention. They were TARDIS blue, and she mildly wondered if the Doctor would scrunch his nose if he saw them on the kitchen table. The older Doctor would've ran away because of domestics, she chuckled inside.

They arrived at Ursus' Workshop, and Rose looked around for Tyrus, confused when she didn't see him. Would he meet the sculptor later?

Said sculptor went inside the entrance room fuming. Rose wondered if he ever felt another thing but anger. "I told you to come alone and you bring her!"

"She's gonna assist me in the sitting."

"You don't need an assistant. Now get her out!"

But Rose didn't fidget at his fury "But what if I need a drink? What if my hair needs fixing? You want your statue to be as perfect as you can, right? So I need her to be with me."

Ursus turned around and served a cup of wine. He grabbed said cup and 'offered' it to her, who had to catch it before its contents were spilled on the floor. The git.

"Here's your drink, your hair is fine. Now she's leaving."

"Okay! Okay." She glared at him in return. She looked remorseful at Vanessa "Vanessa, do you mind waiting outside? You can return to the villa if you wish."

"Oh no! I will wait outside for you to finish." With a bow, she left the room

Ursus went to the backroom to prepare whatever, and he left Rose musing the drink he had given her. She took a sip and made a face in disgust – the wine was too bitter. She left the drink on the table and looked around.

There was a tall covered shape in the corner of the room, covered with a white blanket. A work in progress? She didn't remember something that big in the corner the day before. Maybe it was the marble stone Ursus would use to sculpt her?

She blinked, trying to get rid of the fog that suddenly filled her head. What was going on? Her body felt numb all of sudden, and she couldn't keep her head raised anymore. Dread filled her when she remembered the golden cup resting on the table, the one she had been chugging not so long ago; he must have drugged her! But before she could think of scream for help, darkness overtook her.

When she regained her consciousness, she was in a different position altogether. Her limps were heavy as stone, and she couldn't move an inch.

In front of her, Ursus was pointing at her with a golden spear, but instead of attacking her, he opened her numb hand and placed the spear inside as if she was holding it. He then proceeded to place a golden helmet on her head.

But that was wrong… the statue they saw at the museum wasn't holding a spear, nor wore a helmet on its head.

She tried to move, resist, do something, but she was only able to part her lips and mutter a weak 'No', which Ursus noticed.

"You are awake." He stated with rough voice. She was starting to hate it "I should have put more sleeping herbs in the wine. Do not resist, you will make it worse."

However, she paid no mind. She began regaining the feeling on her hands little by little, which she promptly began clenching. When he was distracted, she shot forward with all the strength she had, which wasn't much to begin with.

Her knees buckled with her weight, but before he could catch her again, she grasped the sheet covering the tall shape; and when he grabbed her arms and pulled her upwards, the sheet fell, revealing the statue of a young man, one that she had only met the day before.

But it isn't possible! She exclaimed mentally. Tyrus told me he had just started his sitting! How come there is already a finished statue of him?

Horror pooled in her gut when he repositioned her in her pose, moving her like a doll. Her last charge had left her without strength, and she felt like she was disconnected from her body. She could barely blink, and as much as she wanted to scream, she could only watch helplessly how he did what he wanted with her body.

"Stop fighting, you rebellious child." He glared at her. When she was secured in the desired position, he looked at the statue admiringly "Tyrus understood. He knew that beauty is more important than life. Your end will come soon, so do not make it more difficult for both of us, okay?"

He pulled out his glove, and Rose confirmed her suspicions: his hands were as ugly as she had imagined. He had pink fleshy fingers, too big to be that precise. He dropped the glove to the floor and smirked.

"I have always wanted to be a sculptor when I was a child, but the gods cursed me with these fat hands, useless for sculpting. I prayed to the gods every day, offering sacrifices of all kinds, asking one single thing: the ability to make beauty into stone. One day, a goddess answered. And she granted my wish."

He then stood in front of her, smiling "And now I am going to turn beauty in stone."

When he touched her cheek, everything went black again.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor fidgeted at the villa's inside garden. It had been hours since Rose and Vanessa had left for her sitting, and they hadn't had a word from any of them. To say he was starting to worry was an understatement.

Maybe it had been a mistake to send her all alone? No, it was the best possible solution. She was the only one allowed inside, so she would be able to see if something in Ursus' line of work was odd. Moreover she had the help of Vanessa if anything went awry.

That didn't calm him in the least.

Taking the matter in his hands, he decided to head to the workshop, and damn the consequences. They would find another way.

With resolute step, the Doctor walked back to the studio, passing the stall where hours ago Rose had noticed the blue flowers, until the workshop was in sight. He was so fixated in his objective that he didn't see the cart going away the place, nearly bashing into him.

The donkeys brayed, reared, and tumbled, almost knocking the man riding the cart and its wares to the ground.

"Look around you, you fool! Do you know how much does my shipment cost?" the carter barked at him

The cloth covering the cargo slipped, letting the Doctor see the statue underneath. For its clothes and the winged sandals one part of the Doctor's brain deducted it was a statue in honour of the god Mercury, but what shocked him was the face of the model. That soft features and wavy hair belonged to no one but Tyrus, the slave they met in their previous visit.

But that was impossible! He remembered him saying he had just started modelling yesterday, so how come there was already a sculpted statue of him with such detail?

A terrible thought crossed his mind. What if the statues weren't sculptured? What if…

The Doctor's face paled and he ran straight to the workshop as fast as he could. At the door, he could see another cart getting ready to leave, and Ursus carrying a covered bundle with a pallet.

"Stop right there!" the Doctor demanded with fury. Ursus, who had just secured the statue inside the cart, turned around and stiffened, getting ready for the confrontation.

The Doctor tackled him, throwing the man to the floor alongside him and punched him in the jaw "WHERE IS ROSE!" he shouted

Ursus responded and they were at each other necks at the floor. The Doctor noticed from the corner of his eye Vanessa with a jar in her hands, looking terrified. She approached them and struck down, and that was the last thing he saw before darkness overtook him.

He didn't last unconscious too much, only fifteen minutes or so, but when he woke up he felt the rage inside him, and directed to the only person near him at the moment, who happened to be Vanessa.

"And why did you hit me!?" he snarled, making her flinch

"I was trying to hit Ursus! I'm so sorry!"

"I will judge that when we solve a more important matter in hand. What happened to Rose!?"

"Sh-she's still inside. I've been in front of the door since we came, and she hasn't left yet."

The Doctor's eyes darkened "No, she probably isn't there anymore. And how can I trust you? Vanessa was your name, right? Sounds Roman, doesn't it? But it was actually invented in the 18th Century by the poet Jonathan Swift. Let's not talk about how you know things that won't happen in centuries." He shook her shoulders "So who are you, and what happened to Rose!?"

Vanessa's lip quivered and tears rolled down her cheeks "You're right. I have been afraid since I first landed here, in 120 A.D. and Balbus found me. I was really confused and said things I shouldn't've, and Balbus took his chance and accused me of being a runaway slave and claimed me as his own."

She took a deep breath, trying to steady her quivering.

"He claimed I was a fortune-teller that had knowledge of the future, the word began to spread and people came with their problems. I am no clairvoyant; I made my guessing with the little I know of the horoscopes and astrology."

"But you, being as clever as you are, normally guessed correctly what was going to happen, right?"

She nodded "That's how I became well-known. I'm tired of being a slave, I just want to go home with father."

"And where is home?"

She chuckled humourlessly "I actually live near here, in Sardinia."

"In which time period?"

"… the 24th century. My name is Vanessa Moretti, daughter of Salvatorio Moretti. I was in my father's workplace waiting for him to return, reading, then I blink and I'm in Rome in 120 A.D., alone. You are travellers of time, aren't you? Could you take me home?" she pleaded

The Doctor's face hardened. "Not until I've found Rose. Once I know she's safe and sound, we will take you wherever and whenever you wish. Do we have a deal?"

Vanessa's face brightened and tackled the Doctor in a hug "Oh thank you! Rose'll probably be inside the workshop yet. No one but Ursus has come out of there."

The Doctor suspected otherwise, but he let faith untie the knots in his gut. He followed the girl blatantly hoping he would find the blonde woman in the room, but when they opened the door, the room was empty.

"B-but how? I've never left the door unattended. Only Ursus came out, carrying two statues, so where is she?"

The Doctor scanned their surroundings and noticed a single shit of paper on the table. Grabbing it, he noted it was a receipt from the carter, the only words written were 'One statue to Rome'. He clenched his fist.

"He didn't sculpt a statue," the Doctor muttered with gritting teeth "He made Rose into statue. He turned her to stone and he left the studio with her as a statue."

Vanessa covered her mouth, eyes widening "Oh my god… How can he do that?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm sure as hell going to find out."

"But what do we do now? I mean, they could be anywhere."

He shoved the receipt in her hands. "We're going to find her, even if it's the last thing I do."

The Doctor stepped out the workshop, resolution in his stride.


	30. From stone, to flesh, to stone

**I forgot to tell you last chapter that this story was based on the book named A Stone Rose. Check it out if you can, I really liked it. Or listen to the audiobook, Tennant's voice is just marvellous.**

**Oh, and my beta (BadWolfGirl01) and I have started to rewrite past chapters, and the introduction and chapter one have been reposted. Go check it out, there have been some changes (excluding the narrative fluidness and corrected typos).**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 24. From stone to flesh to stone**

_She was absorbed with the feeling of the sand between her fingers. It was the first time she had felt in a long time._

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor abandoned the workshop, Vanessa following him closely. They ran to the outskirts of the village, where the roads to other cities began, and the Doctor kneeled down, looking for fresh cart marks. Hopefully, there weren't many.

"There!" he pointed to a road leading to the left "There are cart marks here!"

"But I think one turned to the right." Vanessa pointed out, indicating a road that went to the total opposite direction.

"Damn…" he thought for a moment "Let's see… we landed the 19th, that means it's Quinquatrus, the festival that celebrates Minerva's birthday, goddess of art and artisans. People used to bring presents for the goddess, so it's possible that Ursus has taken Rose there, but he could've also taken the other statue…"

What should he do? He had two leads in two opposite directions, and no time to waste. He had to choose a destination, but how? In his struggle to make a decision, he closed his eyes and pointed forward, then turned around during some seconds, then stopped. He opened his eyes, and found out he was pointing to the right. Well, it was better than nothing at all.

"I'm heading to Rome."

"Okay. I'm going the other way. Good luck!"

He nodded and rushed to Rome, but soon realized it was too far from the village they were staying – it had took about 8 hours by cart, so it would take him even longer on foot. Sighing, he retraced his steps towards the villa; he needed a transportation, so he would ask Gracillus for his help.

The old man had been very cooperative. Hearing about the horrible fate his companion had suffered, he promptly accompanied him to the way station nearest from his villa, as all his donkeys were tired from the search, and even offered to pay whatever he deemed he needed.

However, when they arrived they were stuck with yet another complication. The owner explained that all his beasts were not fresh, and wouldn't be able to take a long journey.

They heard a bray outside the stable, and the Doctor and Gracillus stepped out to meet the newcomer. Mickey greeted them on top of a dark donkey, which seemed a bit out of it.

"Mickey!"

"Boss!" he greeted him and looked around "Where's Rose?"

His gaze darkened "I'm looking for her. Ursus has taken her and turned her into stone."

"He what!?"

"I was on my way to retrieve a horse to travel to Rome, but it seems they're not fit enough…" he looked down at the gasping animal "By the way, nice steed."

Mickey scowled "Don't make fun of Quicksteps. He's been amazing."

"Right. Important matters first. I don't think… _Quicksteps_ will be able to handle a trip to Rome, would he?"

He was running out of options. If they didn't part right now, who knew where Rose would end up? He rubbed his hair in frustration. Maybe the owner would change his mind about lending him a horse, even though they weren't at their top-notch?

He walked inside, followed by Gracillus and Mickey, who had tied the donkey to let him rest. When he was about to ask the owner again, a man wearing expensive-looking robes walked inside the way station.

"Hello." The Doctor offered a hand for him to shake "Long journey?"

The man stared at the Doctor in disdain, and didn't shake the extended hand "I am Lucius Illius Ruffus. I have travelled from Goa for business from the Emperor"

"Oh, Goa." The Doctor tsk-ed "Rough place. Nice scenery, though."

Ruffus ignored him and looked at the owner "I merely wanted my horses changed."

The Doctor tugged one of his ears "I'm afraid you're out of luck. No fresh horses here."

"Nonsense. It has all been arranged."

The Doctor turned to stare at the proprietor. The unfortunate man cringed and begged the Doctor's pardon again; the last horse had been reserved to the gentleman, and he left to the stables to prepare the animal.

"I see, I see…" the Doctor replied mildly, taking a seat opposite Ruffus "You must be on very important business if you can't even rest for the night. "

"Of course"

"Life or death sort of thing?"

The man glared at him "My business are my own." He turned his head in an attempt to stop the Doctor from addressing him

After insisting some more, and Ruffus not saying another word, he stood up and walked towards Gracillus and Mickey. Making sure Ruffus wasn't looking at them, which wasn't very hard, to be honest, he whispered to both men.

"Make sure to distract that man and the owner when he comes back, I've got something to do outside."

They did as they were told – when the Doctor stepped out of the way station at the same time the owner came inside, Gracillus 'stumbled' in front of the main door, Mickey helping him slowly.

All four of them heard the whinny of the horse outside, and Ruffus pushed the old man aside just to see the Doctor already at the horizon, mounting his horse.

The Doctor allowed himself a second to enjoy the wind hitting his face and tossing his tunic, as the horse raced in the Roman road. There it was; that spark of adrenaline that helped him carry on, his head dead set in his objective. Finding Rose.

The horse, seeming to sense his determination, widened his strides, and the Doctor let out a laugh. "Oh, I like you! What's your name? Hmm… I like Arthur." The horse whinnied. "Arthur it is!"

.-.-.-.-.-.

The trip to Rome was shorter than he expected. The search, not so much. He visited the Temple of Minerva first, but there was no sight of Ursus, or any of his statues for the matter. He then visited every temple, every memorial, everywhere he could think of, but he didn't find her.

Refusing to give up, he bumped into a little shrine dedicated to the goddess Fortuna at the outskirts of the city, and he rushed inside. From the distance, he caught a glimpse of a statue, and his heart quickened, hastening his steps.

However, when he was near the sculpture, his shoulders slumped off and his knees buckled. It wasn't Rose. The statue was clearly older than it should have been, and the dull features of the goddess didn't even shadow the sweetness and delicateness of the time traveller's face.

"Rose is prettier than you." he muttered, defeated, and lowered his head. He swallowed the knot in his throat and clenched his fists. Now what?

Suddenly, a distorted voice broke the heavy silence "Thanks."

At that, the Doctor raised his head wide-eyed. It had come from the statue, behind of it. Before he could think of even stand up, a small glass vial containing a green substance rolled towards his knees. He picked it up, studying the liquid inside.

"This will bring Rose and all the others back." The voice paused "All praise to me. That's Fortuna, and all that."

He stood up and was about to round the statue, when a familiar voice called him from behind.

"Doctor! Roman guards are coming for you!" Mickey cried before Lucius Illius Ruffus and several armed guards stepped inside the shrine

"There he is! This is the man who stole my horse." Ruffus pointed at him in disgust and the guards proceeded to hold him still

"Well, excuse me! This is no way to behave in a temple!" he struggled against his hold, but Ruffus stepped in front of him and slapped him in across the face, making him stumble. To his horror, the vial slipped past his fingers and fell to the floor

"Mickey! Gracillus!"

But the guards dragged him away, further and further from what could be Rose's salvation. Not only that, but he was desperate to investigate the biggest mystery of the day: why was someone in an ancient Roman temple talking to him through something that sounded distinctly like a vocoder?

The Doctor lets the soldiers carry him through the busy city, ignoring the looks the people threw at him. They had reached the centre of the Polis, and one tall structure loomed closer: it was the Flavian Amphitheatre, what would be later known as the Coliseum, known for its festivities of duels, blood and death.

The soldiers kicked him inside one of the back doors, where the amphitheatre guards dragged him to their leader. He tried to shrug of their arms, but their grip tightened, making any form of resistance futile.

They were sending him to his death tomorrow, honouring the god Mars. He paced around the cell he was put in, trying to find a way out. Without his screwdriver – the guards had taken all his belongings – he didn't have much options left.

Night came slowly, the Doctor's hyperactive mind cataloguing every detail of their trip to Rome, and some things still didn't add up. The rattle of the door opening startled him out of his reverie. One of the guards, Thermus, if he recalled correctly waited for him outside, the screwdriver in his hand.

"It seems you 'ave influential friends out there, pal. Now out!"

The Doctor did as he was said and grabbed his screwdriver guarded, rolling it in the air before tucking it to his leather belt. He followed the guard, noticing they were walking to the opposite direction of their way in, but his head was focused in what were the next steps of the search.

They met with another guard in front of the closed gates, and the Doctor looked around the dark corridor. Was this the exit?

It wasn't. As soon as one guard opened the door, Thermus kicked him inside what he later discovered was the arena of the Amphitheatre, and the crowd went wild. Before he could escape, his way out closed, and some other gates opened, only to let in different species of animals, still lethargic and half-starved. They were calm now, yes, but they wouldn't be soon.

He took a glimpse of Ruffus sitting in the closest level, giving image of his social class, and he extended his arm playfully, quoting a film "Nos morituri te salutamus."

No one caught the reference, obviously, and he felt a pang in his chest, as Rose would be most certainly laughing right now.

A lion approached him, seemingly more awake and definitely hungry. He clasped his screwdriver and looked for the setting he needed, the beast closing by. When he found it, he pointed the sonic at him and pressed the button, the device making an inaudible wave of sound (for humans), what made the lion tuck his tail between his legs and run away, before collapsing on the floor, out of it.

The crowd didn't seem to like that, though, and he soon found himself fleeing from the big paws of a bear. He tried the screwdriver gimmick – didn't work, it wasn't the correct frequency. He climbed up a tree – didn't work; bears were not put off by trees.

The bear began shacking the tree violently, what made him drop his sonic, and he cursed; things didn't look too well for him at the moment. When the bear decided to climb up, he took his only escape route and jumped on its back.

The animal began trashing wildly, trying to get him off, and the Doctor held for dear life. Sensing that the bear planned to throw himself backwards to the floor in order to squish him, he changed his plan. Just as the animal was about to touch the floor, he let go of his fur and rolled on the arena, reaching for his screwdriver. When the bear shook out his confusion, he quickly changed the settings and thrusted the sonic screwdriver forward, activating it.

The reaction was instantaneous. The bear whimpered losing all his will to fight, and the Doctor smirked. The crowd booed, outraged; they had come to see blood and were quite disappointed.

The organisation, trying to calm the masses, released a group of slaves in the arena, who were rapidly rounded by a tiger. The Doctor, the sonic in his hand, stunned the tiger and commanded them to the lowest wall, trying to jump it. the guards walked inside, trying to stifle the rebellious mass, but the combination of the enraged animals and the fighting skills of the prisoners, they managed to snatch some of their weapons.

He looked to where Ruffus was looking down at him with disdain, then looked back at the trident under his feet, smiling blithely. He grabbed the weapon and began running at their direction, and when he was close enough, he stabbed the floor with the fork part of the trident and the Doctor launched himself upwards, making a perfect landing between two senators.

"Olympics, here I come!" he cheered, laughing like a maniac. Taking the two senators by surprise, he grabbed the expensive clothes covering them and tied them together, making a rope for the prisoners to escape.

"Doctor!"

Said man turned around in time to see Ruffus pointing at him with an arrow, ready to fire, when Gracillus pushed him from behind, making the man lose his step and falling inside the arena. The Doctor ran towards the zone Gracillus was standing, and both of them escaped from the amphitheatre, Mickey waiting for them on top of Gracillus' cart. As soon as both men jumped inside, Mickey tugged the reins and the two donkeys pushed forward, taking them away from the Coliseum.

"Thank you so much for your help, Gracillus. You can go now, Mickey 'nd I will take care of it."

"I refuse to back down, Doctor, not now."

"But don't you understand? I am a fugitive now. If they find out you're helping me out they're going to persecute you too."

Gracillus shook his head with resolution "You have been helping me, inconveniencing yourself. I will not desert a friend, much less if he is looking for his loved ones."

"Yeah, me too, boss." Mickey quipped sarcastically "In case you were wonderin' and stuff. Let's bring back Rose!"

The Doctor nodded, and asked Mickey to take them to Fortuna's shrine. It was as deserted as the day before, only one man was praying at one of the corners of the little temple.

The Doctor rushed forward and quickly rounded the statue, but he didn't find any trace of someone being there. He then fell to hands and knees, looking for the vial he dropped and praying the gods that anyone had caught it.

"What're you lookin' for?" Mickey asked

"A glass vial with a green liquid on it that I dropped when I was arrested. We need it in order to bring back everyone that has turned into stone. I just wish that no one has taken it with them since," He muttered

Gracillus eyes shone and took out of one of his pockets said vial, showing it to him "Is that what you are looking for?"

The Doctor raised his gaze and gaped, grabbing immediately the recipient "B-but how!?"

"It caught my eye when we were about to follow the guards, and I decided to keep it."

The Doctor beamed "Oh you're brilliant, Gracillus!" he kissed the vial "Now that we've got the potion to reverting the stone to flesh, we've got to find Ursus' statues. Where could they even be?"

"Are you talking about Ursus, the famous sculptor?" the soldier that had been quietly praying at the corner of the temple spoke up, looking at the group of men

"Yes!" the Doctor exclaimed "Do you know something about it?"

The centurion scratched his short blond hair "I heard some of my colleagues talking about an Ursus statue being unveiled at the forum as an offering to the gods. Maybe that's the statue you're looking for. I don't know where the other ones could be, though; I'm not a local boy."

The Doctor thanked the soldier and the three of them left the temple, leaving the centurion alone. When he finished his prayers, he grabbed his sword and helmet and stepped out of the temple, returning to his self-imposed task.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The Doctor, Mickey and Gracillus reached the Forum. In the centre, one man stood at the stage beside a covered statue, and a great crowd surrounded him.

"Citizens of Rome, may the Gods bless you. For the Quinquatrus, Aulus Valerius Ursus has submitted one of his last works in oblation, giving face to one of our gods so they can experience the festivities. Now, let us see his work!"

The man uncovered the statue, showing the white body of a young man looking upwards to the skies, as if he was about to reach the clouds. It was Tyrus, not Rose. The crowd cheered, but the jolly celebration didn't reach the three travellers.

The Doctor squared his shoulders and walked towards the man who had presented the statue, who was already packing his belongings "Um, excuse me?" he managed to catch his attention "I was wondering if you have seen another sculpture of Ursus around here? Maybe one that has yet to be presented?"

"I am not aware of that. Look around the Forum if you wish, but I do not recall seeing another statue made from Ursus here."

"Thank you." they watched as the man walked away, and the Doctor looked up the statue "Now we've got to help Tyrus. We could wait for the night, when everyone's out and not cause havoc…" he shook his head "No, we don't have the time."

"What do we do, boss?"

"I'm gonna revive Tyrus. Mickey, Gracillus, when he regains his body, protect him at all cost, don't let anyone get too close to him. Understood?"

Both men nodded, and the Doctor grinned. When they were prepared, he jumped to the platform where the anchormanhad stood and cleared his voice, calling back the attention of the mass.

"Citizens of Rome, I bring good news. The gods have talked to me, and they have said they were very thankful of your celebrations. They want to send a message of peace and love, and who is the best messenger, but the God Mercury, messenger of the gods? For that matter, they will turn stone into flesh, and Mercury himself will appear in front of us!"

The crowd looked sceptical. The Doctor opened the vial and let a tiny drop fall onto the marble of the statue.

At first, nothing happened. Some people even began to leave, but suddenly, a woman screamed. In the place the drop had fallen, pink flesh began eating away the whiteness of the marble. Void eyes became blue ones, and when all the stone disappeared, the boy stumbled forward.

The whole forum was silent. The Doctor secured Tyrus and whispered in his ear "Tell them you bring a message of peace and love."

"I… I bring a message of peace and love."

The crowd went wild. They really believed that what they had just witnessed was by the hand of the gods, who had blessed them. The Doctor soon gave Tyrus to Mickey and Gracillus, and asked them to take him out of side.

Gracillus, who was still speechless, managed to stammer "What kind of sorcery happened there!?"

"Well… you know what? That's exactly what happened. Ursus is an… evil sorcerer that's turning people into stone. The gods have given me this potion to restore the frozen people to their original state."

He caught a breath "That means that Optatus… Oh, gods…"

"I'm so sorry, Gracillus, but I promise you we will revert Optatus back."

"Let us wait until the night; I do not want Marcia knowing about this. While we wait, we could revert all the people under his spell."

They did just that. They roamed around Rome, looking for statues done by Ursus and bringing them back to life, helping the poor slaves and arranging transport for them. Scouring one Polis, they passed by a familiar street and the Doctor asked him to help him transport the TARDIS to the villa too.

It was already night when they arrived at the villa. They did as Gracillus had asked, and returned Optatus to his human form without Marcia knowing. Father and son embraced, and the two time travellers gave them some space to catch up.

The Doctor felt hopeless. It had been nearly two days since he had lost her, and despite the Doctor visiting literally every temple of Rome, and every place Gracillus art contacts had indicated they would be able to find Ursus works, there weren't any signs of her. It was like she wasn't even in that time.

He didn't want to think about what would happen to him if they didn't find her soon. He most certainly would lose himself; she had become his pillar his strength to carry on, and without her, he didn't think himself capable of waking up every day and stroll through the universe alone.

"I don't understand, Doctor, where could she be!? I mean, she has to be somewhere, right? We saw her statue at the museum after all."

Wait.

_The museum!_

"Mickey, you're brilliant!" the Doctor grabbed his head and placed a kiss on his forehead "Let's go! I know exactly where we can find her."

They went inside the TARDIS and the Doctor made the quickest trip in centuries. When they stepped out, Mickey was surprised to find himself in the closed museum at night.

"Why are we here?" he pondered

"Well, for her." The Doctor replied, as they both stepped inside the same room they had been only days before, and Rose's statue greeted them

The Doctor admired the statue, already missing the soft look in her face and her warm smile. He reached a hand to catch hers, but refrained himself, clenching his fists in pain. _Soon,_ he thought, _we'll save you soon._

"You see, when I saw the statue that morning I thought that the one who'd made it must've had really known her. Now that I know the truth…"

"You're right. One statue as big as this tends to be made in pieces, then assembled together. To do a unique piece of this proportions requires a lot of work. I assumed the sculptor would've been enamoured with her, but not this. Never crossed my mind."

"Well, you can fix her with the liquid, innit? What are you waiting for?"

"Right."

He reached for the vial. The container was almost empty, with enough liquid for one, maybe two times. He passed the restricted area and dropped carefully a droplet on the marble surface, waiting patiently for the reaction to start.

But nothing happened.

The statue should have been reverted by then, but the stone kept being stone, and there was no sign of the process starting whatsoever.

"What's going on, Doctor? Why doesn't she change back?"

"I-I don't know!" he tugged at his hair anxiously "This is the first time it doesn't work out, why is it?" he looked at the statue – its surface was full of cracks, and there was that arm missing that ticked him off "Could it be… could it be that we're too late? That her body is too damaged to change back?"

"Doctor, does it mean she's dead?" Mickey asked. There was no response "Answer, goddamnit!"

The Doctor was looking at the statue in horror. Was he too late? Was Rose really dead? No. it couldn't be. She wasn't. She was supposed to run in all the time and space with him, not stuck in a bloody _statue_ and die slowly. She couldn't be _dead._

"That's why we couldn't find the statue in Rome. The statue being here in the future meant that weren't meant to find it back in Ancient Rome. It would have been a paradox. There was nothing we could do…" he lamented

He cupped the statue's face and rested his forehead in hers, not caring if tears fell down his cheeks. He had lost her. He hadn't even told her and he had lost her.

What he would give to spend some more time with her; it didn't matter the place, the time, he just _wanted _her by his side, clasping her warm hand in his, and giving him that tongue-touched grin of hers.

He separated his face from hers a bit, and something caught his attention. He peered at it, the gears in his head working at full speed, and he suddenly jumped off the statue, going to the TARDIS with a blank look.

"Doctor? Where are you going?" Mickey asked him, but he never got a reply.

Soon enough, the Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS, the denim jacket Rose had been wearing in his hand. He rummaged inside her pockets, and after taking out a lip-gloss and some clean tissues, he found what he was looking for. He stepped closer to the statue and raised his hand. They matched.

The Doctor began laughing maniacally, and Mickey thought he had just lost his wits. The Time Lord cleaned the tears of his cheeks and showed him the object in his hand.

"Do you know what is this?"

"An earring?" Mickey replied confused

"Oh, no, no, it's not just an earring. It's _the_ earring. The earring Rose was wearing this morning, the same one she took out to compare it with the statue, and the one she kept in her pocket and never put on again. Now, what's wrong with the statue?"

Mickey searched for something striking as odd in the statue, but found himself empty-handed. "I don't know. She's wearing the earrings too."

"_Exactly. _The statue is wearing two earrings, while Rose was only wearing one!"

"So that means…?" Mickey's face brightened, the pieces already falling to their place

"Oh yes. This stone of Rose is just that – a stone. We can still save her!" The Doctor looked down at the vial; there was still one drop left. He grinned "Mickey, I've got to go and find her!"

"But then, where does that statue come from?"

"I have no idea." He grinned "Mickey do you believe in gods?"

"No, why?"

"Because, right at this moment I do. I think goddess Fortuna is smiling on me. You can't come, though. I have to take care of something before. Stay here guarding the statue, make sure nothing happens to it. I'll just…"

Mickey began to protest, but the Doctor was already at the TARDIS' door. He opened it quickly and closed it behind him, the time machine disappearing from sight seconds later.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Rose gasped. She felt like someone had thrown a bucked of cold water on her face. She choked, suddenly dazed and confused. Where was she? Her vision was really blurry, and she closed her eyes to try to clear them. When she opened them again, she found herself in a total different place.

That wasn't Ursus workroom but a cart? And there was something tall before her… not something, someone, and she was sure it wasn't Ursus. A big beaming grin came into focus in a while, and she realized who was in front of her. It was the Doctor!

She dropped the spear in her hand and leaned forward, the Doctor catching her and embracing her tightly, almost as if he was afraid to let go. He took out her helmet and placed a lingering kiss on her temple, sighing.

"I am so glad to see you again." He muttered

"Me too." She smiled, and something strange seemed to cross the Doctor's eyes "Last thing I remember is that I…"

"Was turned into stone. Sorry." He managed to look sheepish "Ursus has been turning people into stone all these months."

"I knew it! As soon as I saw his statue at Ursus' workshop, I suspected as much. We have to go find him, then!"

"Already taken care of it. Let's say than in a day or two, past me will be reverting Tyrus into human."

She cocked her head "How?"

"Rose, let me tell you about the beauty of time travel. Me from the past is going to Rome right at this moment with Mickey. There I will find this," he showed her the vial "which contained a potion which turns into flesh what Ursus has turned into stone, save Tyrus, and then I'll jump back in order to find you."

She grabbed the vial "And where did that come from? Where's Ursus?"

"I have no idea." He said with a wide smile in his face

She poked him playfully "You're lost without me."

"Quite right, too."

She shoved him with the shield and then remembered another thing that was nagging her "But what about the statue at the museum? I'm clearly wearing different accessories from the statue at the museum."

"Mmm, for what you're wearing, I'd say you're portraying the goddess Minerva, not Fortuna."

A shriek interrupted them. They both looked behind Rose, only to see Vanessa panting and looking at the Doctor wide-eyed.

"How… how did you get here before me? It's impossible! You went the other side!" she gasped

"Oh, Vanessa! I wanted to see you. Rose, let me introduce you to Vanessa Moretti. She's from the year 2375."

"Oh really?" she whistled, "You're far from home, aren't ya?"

"Now, why don't you tell us how you ended here? You didn't manage to finish the story."

Vanessa sighed and nodded "My father was working on an artificial intelligence programme when I was little. He brought it home one day, breaking the protocols of his institute, and he seemed to vanish in thin air. One day, I went to see if the study of my father was still operative and that's when I saw it; there, on the table, was a box."

"And you think this was what he was working in?" the Doctor asked

"What else could it be? The room was almost empty. However, the TV still worked, and I put a documentary of the Roman Empire. I had always liked history, so when I was talking to Arianna at the phone I told her: 'I wish I lived back then'. Then the lights went out and there was something that sounded like a thunder, and when I open my eyes I'm here."

The girl began sobbing, and Rose placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. The Doctor, however, began pacing in front of both women, digesting the information.

"An artificial intelligence programme…" his eyes widened and he stopped "We've got to find Ursus. There!" he pointed at the floor "Footsteps! Let's follow them."

The trio made their way inside the forest, following the deep footprints. They soon arrived at a clearing where a small dishevelled stone building stood, its roof half down and the walls full of holes. They peered from those holes, and they saw Ursus with another woman wearing a helmet and a spear like her.

The woman turned around and Rose gasped. She had an ethereal glow in her eyes and hair, who seemed to wave with an inexistent wind. She wasn't dressing like Minerva – she _was _Minerva.

Ursus spoke up "I have made my most perfect work. I have brought her here to honour you."

"You will be rewarded for your devotion." Minerva spoke up, her soft voice reaching them without effort.

"I don't wanna see this," Rose muttered, making a face.

Ursus left the room, only to come back with a lamb in his arm and a dagger in his hand.

"I have brought you this lamb in sacrifice."

"Very good."

"I _really _don't want to see this." she added with disgust

Ursus raised the hand with the knife, and before she thought it through, Rose charged forward, trying to stop him from killing the animal. He noticed her, and even though she managed to tackle him, it was too late, as the dagger slashed the poor lamb's neck and he bleed out on the floor, in front of the goddess.

To Rose's horror, the blood began disappearing and soon the lamb too, shrinking until it disappeared. Minerva just licked her red lips.

"Goddesses still need to eat, Rose Tyler. Doctor, Vanessa, come here with us."

They did as they were told, and the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand.

"So you're Minerva?" the Doctor asked "That's the one who granted your wish to be a sculptor?"

"I create beauty."

"Are you denying you have been doing harm? Because that's not what it seems to me."

Ursus glared at him "Art justifies everything!" He pulled off his gloves "You see this hands? They shouldn't belong to me; I was cursed with the inability to reach my dream. I was supposed to create art."

"So just like that you became a mass murderer, isn't it? Just to.. How did you say it?"

"To make beauty in stone." Rose added "Just to grant your selfish wish you've killed dozens of people!"

The Doctor muttered beside her "Actually, I'm gonna bring them back 2 days from now, more or less." He then looked up again "But what strikes me at odd is that, after all those years praying, the goddess Minerva just appeared in front of you one day and granted your wish?"

"It happened exactly like this."

"Yeah, right. Vanessa? 2375, Sardinia, right? Artificial intelligence device?"

"Yes." She answered a bit confused

"Right. Because you see, in all this years, I've seen a lot of things: vampires, werewolves, dinosaurs, the Loch Ness monster, entities that exist in the antimatter, stuff of nightmares. But a goddess with supernatural powers? Never." He smiled saucily "That's why I wish I could see what you really look like."

Suddenly a big noise broke the calm of the forest, something that sounded like a clash, and Minerva vanished, only to leave a small and scaly creature in her place, a mix between a little dragon and a platypus, seating on top of a box.

Everything happened so quickly then. Ursus shouted, the sacrifice knife dripping blood of the lamb in his hand and charged forward to attack them. Vanessa, who was now looking at the box that had been on her father's desk, ran towards the box, not noticing the danger she was putting herself into.

The Doctor also charged forward and grabbed Ursus' arm, trying to make him miss his slash to Vanessa and he pushed her, making her stumble backwards. Rose jumped on Ursus' back, trying to restrain him and he fell on his face, suddenly immobile. She stood up, only to see that when he fell, he had landed on his own dagger, and he was now bleeding to death.

Calming her erratic breaths, she turned around slowly, hoping with all her strength that what she had seen from the corner of her eye hadn't really happened.

The Doctor had his hand outstretched forward, in a powerful stance in his resolve to protect Vanessa from Ursus' attacks, his face frozen in a determined expression that was very him, but that would never change, because before she had jumped on his back, Ursus had touched the Doctor with his bare hand, turning him into stone.

And, Rose noted, looking at her hand, the vial that contained the potion that turned people into flesh again was totally empty.


	31. If wishes were statues

**Sorry for the short delay – I had exams going on and lab experiments to do (I'm a mad scientist. El. Psy. Congroo.) but here it is! Thank BadWolfGirl01 for being patient with good old me.**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 25. If wishes were statues, then beggars would sculpt**

"_I need to see him, even if it breaks my heart in the process."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

The empty vial clinked when it fell to the floor, the hand that held it feeling numb. Rose noticed from the corner of her eye that Vanessa had been turned into stone too, but she couldn't avert her eyes from the Doctor's petrified face, the expression he wore being one she loved seeing, but she could've never imagine seeing it like this. And she hated it.

His eyes wouldn't flicker with excitement when he found someone that impressed him anymore, those freckled cheeks would never tint with soft pink when babbling his way out of embarrassment, and that mouth would never again smile down at her every time she grabbed his hand.

She pressed her trembling hand on his cold cheek, tears streaming down her face. Closing her eyes, she rested her forehead in his and whispered "Oh Doctor, it's all my fault. It's my fault you're like this. It should be me, not you and now…" she choked with her tears "I wish we'd never come here."

A sound inside her head that sounded distinctly like thunder startled her and she turned around, looking for the source. The sky was clear of clouds, so what could've made it?

She turned back again and stifled a gasp. The Doctor was gone.

She looked around frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of the person who could've possibly moved him in this short period of time, and that's when she noticed Ursus' body – well, what was left of it.

His face was melting, reminding her of their first adventure with the plastic dummies, the liquid remains pooling on the floor – only to disappear moments after, absorbed by the strange creature in a way that made her stomach lurch.

"Mmm," the creature mused with a nasal voice, licking his beak when Ursus' body disappeared completely, "That should take me going for a while."

Rose clenched her fists in fury "Where's the Doctor? What have you done to him?"

The creature blinked, his big bright eyes staring at her "There has been no Doctor here."

"But you called him by his name before."

"I think you must be mistaken." He answered with chipper voice, as if he was amused by the situation "There wasn't anyone called Doctor here, ask around here, if you doubt my word."

She huffed "There is no one to ask around here! There's only you and me now. What are you, anyway?"

He cleaned his scaly paws and sat down on the metallic box.

"I am a GENIE."

"A genie?" she gasped

"Indeed. I am a Genetically Engineered Neural Imagination Engine."

"You were the project Vanessa's dad was working, weren't you?"

"It might be possible that Salvatorio Moretti was the human that developed me, yes."

"And you make wishes come true, don't you?"

"I was not not made with the purpose to grant wishes, if that's what you mean. My creator engineered me like this."

Was he trying to be a pain in the arse deliberately or was it the way he was? She pondered his words carefully, eager to understand their real meaning.

She looked down at the remaining statue of the room "So when Vanessa said she wanted to live in Rome…"

"I granted her wish. It took a considerably amount of energy to do so. Luckily, she didn't ask for my services in order to return to her time, as I would have had difficulties doing so."

Rose frowned "She didn't even know you were coming with her! She was all alone, not having a clue of what was going on!"

"I… might've made a slight miscalculation, you see." GENIE fidgeted "But considering I was able not only to think of a viable way of time travel but also put it in practice in so short time, and transport two living beings not only through time but also space… well, I wouldn't really count it as an error."

The nerve of him! It wasn't only that all that situation was his fault, but he was also trying to get out of it, going as far as thinking he was so impressive! Her thoughts flew towards a certain leather-wearing man, but she shrugged them off before she panicked again. She had to fix this – _him_ –, and she'll have time to worry about other things later.

"What about Ursus? He wished he was a good sculptor, not to become a bloody serial killer."

"It's hardly my fault that people suffice to be specific." He shrugged "He didn't seem to mind."

"That was because he was a total psycho!" she shouted, exasperated with the creature "And even if people say I wish, it doesn't mean they wait for the literal outcome to… happen…"

Her eyes widened in realisation. Hadn't she just said that to him? And the GENIE…

Oh, the GENIE had heard her all right.

"You granted what I said… I said I wished we had never come here and you…"

"Granted it." He nodded in satisfaction, almost grinning

She narrowed her eyes "You're having fun with this, aren't you?" He had the decency to look embarrassed, and she took her time to catalogue the information and thought for possible solutions, "What if I wish my wish undone?"

"I don't advise it." he replied, suddenly serious "If the Doctor never came to Rome, he never was here, so you never wished for him to be here, so I never granted that wish. Then, there is no wish to undo."

It made so much bloody sense. She couldn't ask for the Doctor to be brought here, because he could bring whichever Doctor in his timeline that he pleased. But maybe if she was more specific…?

"Would you – and that's no wish – be able, theoretically, to bring the Doctor that visited two days ago with me the British museum if I expressed the wish for it?"

"I'm afraid I don't possess at the moment that amount of power to move a person out of time and space. When I granted Vanessa's wish I was connected to the global electricity supply, but here there are more primitive ways of obtaining energy, as you have just seen." He grinned saucily and Rose shuddered in disgust. She had seen it, yeah.

"I imagine that it would take the same amount of energy to take me home, then…" the creature nodded "How much do you require? We wouldn't use people, of course, but how much energy do we have to give you in order to time travel again?"

He hummed "Considering the energy my last fare gave me, I estimate I would need… approximately 1.8 million times the same amount in order to grant the wish."

She bit her lip. Where would she able to find that amount of energy in Ancient Rome? It was even more than the population of the Empire at that time! And who told her the GENIE wouldn't alter her wish in order to amuse himself? She was running out of possibilities and too quickly.

Hang on. This wasn't making sense. If it took a couple million corpses to travel through time, how come he managed to warp the reality in such extent to change an entire timeline, just with Ursus and the lamb? Not just that, but her still being in Rome should be a paradox, because if she had wished for the Doctor to never come here, he never took her, ergo, she shouldn't be there at that instant.

So that meant… what did it mean exactly? She fumbled with a loose string of her toga, an idea blossoming on her mind. The GENIE was telepathic, could it mean he was suggesting her mind somehow in order to see what she had "wished" to see?

She had to test it.

She sighed exaggeratedly "I wish Mars was visible in the Earth sky today and I could see it without moving from this exact spot and neither travelling in time, and it was the same size of the moon."

_CRASH!_

Rose stifled a gasp with her hand, her eyes widening as she drank the sky, which in a blink of the eye had obscured a bit and a shiny red orb shone brightly near a white moon, as if it had always been there.

She caught deep breaths and tried to put an order to her thoughts, overthinking her own words before speaking them. "You can travel in time but that's just technology. Turning people to stone is just messing with molecules, but there's no such thing as magic and you can't alter reality.

If the Doctor wouldn't have come to Rome, then he wouldn't brought me, then we never would've met Vanessa, and we certainly wouldn't have ended in that abandoned shrine; you wouldn't have taken your blood and you'd never have granted my wish. It wouldn't have been the same exactly situation just without the Doctor.

And because all the timeline would've changed, I would've never have seen outside the wishes like I'm doing now. If it was reality, I wouldn't remember the Doctor coming to Rome either."

She grinned saucily at the creature's discomfort. Oh, she was touching a sore subject. _Let's end this now!_

"You can go inside people's heads, that's how you knewour names, and that's how it worked that Minerva thing. So, wouldn't it be logical to assume it worked the other way? It's not that the Doctor was never here, but you altered my perception of reality to make me think he really never was." She made a pause to catch her breath "I really, _really_ don't like people messing with my head."

She walked forward confidently, trying to silent the tiny voice of her head that told her that there were infinite ways of this turning out wrong, and stood in front of the GENIE, who watched her silently, neither affirming nor denying anything.

"I wish that I could see the shrine as it really is, including the sky and my surroundings, not back frozen in time, and the statue of Vanessa has to stay where it is right now."

A loud thunder echoed inside her mind and the sun began shining brightly over her head, the sky returning to its natural state. Vanessa was still at her place, and Rose noticed with a watery laugh that in front of her stood the petrified figure of the Doctor.

He was back! Oh god, she had missed him so much! She caressed the cold cheek of the statue, hope filling her from head to toe. She could do this! She could save the Doctor this time around.

She turned around again and looked at the now grumbling GENIE with a challenging smile in her face.

"Now, that wasn't so difficult, was it? Thank you for granting my wish." She saw in amusement as he scoffed and nodded, looking clearly upset that she had figured it out.

"You're welcome." He muttered.

A part of her felt a bit bad for the poor guy, but she wanted her Doctor back, and nothing would be able to stop her. So in order to do just that, she spoke carefully again.

"What would happen if I expressed my desire for the Doctor and Vanessa not being of stone?" at the glee brightening his eyes again, she raised a hand in defeat "Don't answer me. You would probably twist it so every stone I touched became flesh or something."

"It is certainly not my fault people is not precise enough. Although you seem to be an exception." He grumbled the last part

She looked around, looking for a possible way out of this, and she noticed the empty vial she had dropped, the one that once had contained the formula to turn petrified people to normal. She picked it up and showed it to him eagerly.

"This vial, the Doctor told me it had this stuff that turned people back from stone. So I wish it was full of the same stuff again, not any other kind of liquid, and that it has the same effect."

With another booming sound, the vial was filled once again with the emerald liquid. She squealed in delight and kissed the platypus-dragon on his beak, making him stammer.

Without further ado, she ran to the Doctor's side and carefully dropped a single drop of the green liquid on his cheek, waiting for the reaction to begin. At first, nothing happened, but then the white of the stone began to fade, freckled cheeks taking its place. Fingers began wobbling and his eyes blinked to clear the fog the process brought to one's mind.

She couldn't stop her tears from running when his eyes fell on her again, looking confused at first, then tender in realisation. His arms flexed and he grabbed her in a hug, relishing the feeling of being alive and being with each other again.

He cupped her cheek as if she was the most precious thing he had ever seen and slowly lowered his lips to hers, capturing them and kissing her the way he had wanted for so long. Her initial shock faded quickly, melting into the kiss and running her fingers in his once again soft hair, what made him groan into her mouth.

They broke apart when she needed to take her breath, and he pressed his forehead in hers in a caring way, looking down at her with a warm gaze.

"Hello," he murmured, a little smile on his face

"Hello," she answered breathlessly, but with a smile of her own "I think you must be real; my imagination isn't that good."

"Quite right too," he joked, still not letting her go. "Look at you, figuring it out on your own. Have I ever told you you're brilliant?"

She hummed. "Mmm, I am good, aren't I?"

"Oh yes. Definitely."

He casted her gaze to the side, looking at the other statue but not moving from inside the Doctor's arms "We should do something about Vanessa too."

"Right." He kissed her once more, nibbling her lower lip seductively before breaking apart and taking a step back, albeit reluctantly.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves, ignoring the satisfied look the Doctor was shooting her – and totally disregarding the amused expression the GENIE wore – and stepped in front of the petrified Vanessa, dropping another drop on her.

Rose caught the poor girl when she stumbled forward, dizzy after the spell she had fallen into. She helped her up and answered her questions, asking her not to use in any circumstance the word 'wish' in a sentence.

"Well then, now that everything's all right, we ought'a take Vanessa to her own time, don't we? Without sacrificing 2 million people for a power source, of course."

"Oh, but we have one perfect power source." He grinned blithely. "Its name begins with a 'T'"

She smiled back at him, then frowned remembering something "Wait, but the GENIE told me that no wish could be undone, that it wasn't advisable to do so."

He crooked an eyebrow "That's most certainly not true."

"Then why did you lie to me?" she glared at the creature

"I just stated my opinion of the matter. I cannot help with the conclusions his statement caused inside your mind."

Before Rose could snap, the Doctor intervened. "I think he was reluctant to bring me back because he was afraid."

"Of wha'?"

"Of me. I suppose he looked into my mind, and saw I'd found out what he really was. You see, the GENIEs in 2375 had established a society where everything was available, where the GENIEs facilitates every wish. As you know, that couldn't possibly end right." He looked back at her playfully. "Humans always muck things up. People saw a GENIE and wished for them to have one too, and POP, they spread all over the planet like bunnies. People began asking for selfish wishes, not caring for people around them or the future, and that brought them to devastation."

Rose bit her lip in hesitation. "You still love us, right?"

He beamed in response "Of course I love you. Although you make a mess of things sometimes."

He bumped her nose softly and continued with his explanation.

"So, thanks to the GENIEs – well, the people using them – Earth was on the brink of destruction, and the power that they were using to grant the wishes was immense. When it became a problem, they tried to think of a solution, coming out empty. They couldn't wish for all the GENIEs to disappear, as it would cause an immense paradox; if you wished for all the GENIEs to disappear, who would've granted the wish in the first place?

Then they came to a plan. They searched for the earliest GENIE created, and found one developed on May, 2375. They knew they would need a lot of energy to do what they needed, so they threw him to the sun, and they made their wish." He paused, looking at the scaly creature before them, "They wished for every inhabitant of the planet to travel to the day that GENIE was created."

"Then the other GENIEs wouldn't've existed, just the one granting the wish, right?" Rose guessed, "But then, what stopped the GENIE to spread again?"

"It was the sun itself. When they tugged the GENIE to the sun, they didn't just ask him to commit genocide, but they also sentenced him to his death. He burned to crisp, and the resulting firestorm destroyed the lab where the GENIEs were created."

"But then, how come this GENIE still exists?"

"Vanessa?" he addressed the silent girl "Which was the day you disappeared?"

"17th April, 2375."

"That's why it exists; it was the first GENIE created."

The pieces of the intricate, timey wimey puzzle were falling on their rightful places, and everything started to make sense in an oddly convoluted way. Well, Rose should be used to it by now.

She took her chance to ask about the things she still didn't understand "Wait a mo', if the people wished for be sent back and destroy all the GENIEs, how come you remember it? Theoretically it hasn't happened, right?"

"To put it simply, time is – and I'm not trying to sound smug, that's how my species developed – my domain. Time Lords can see timelines, possible outcomes of people's decisions, and I can also see things that happened but they no longer are, echoes of timelines in the stream of time… well, if I concentrate enough."

Rose crossed her arms and smiled, her tongue poking out of her teeth "You think you're so impressive."

"I, Rose Tyler, most certainly am." He said with conviction, stepping forward and grabbing her hand

The conversation died away, and the Time Lord, the two female humans and the scaly engine stared at each other.

"Well, what do we do now?" Rose asked

"I can't go home; I'll be condemning Earth to death." Vanessa whispered in horror

The Doctor shrugged her worry off "Oh, not you, just the GENIE. We just have to take you home without it. That's what time machines are for."

The GENIE looked remorseful, not lifting his gaze from his scaly paws "Please, wish for me to be erased from existence."

"We can't do that!" Rose protested

"Yeah. And we don't need to. We just need to find some place with, I don't know, less destructive people who would wish for more reasonable things. I'll think of something." He scratched his ear and looked at the sky "It's already Quinquatrus; I should be arriving to Rome right now." He frowned "It would be pretty catastrophic if I met myself."

He then remembered something that happened there in eight hours. Something that still needed to happen in order to everything to sort out as it had. Something he hadn't thought about until he saw the vial full of green liquid clasped inside Rose's hand.

"Rose, do you still have that vial of liquid?"

She cocked her head but took it out of her belt nonetheless "Yeah. But we don't need it anymore, do we? Everyone was restored back to normal."

He scratched his neck "Not yet. Past me doesn't even have the container yet."

"Then how did you get it in the first place!?" she exclaimed

The Doctor just grinned secretively and tugged her hand to follow him, travelling back to the TARDIS.

.-.-.-.-.-.

The TARDIS materialised in an alcove near the shrine of Fortuna, the two time travellers being the only ones to step out of the ship. The Doctor looked around to make sure they were at the correct place and the correct time and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm staying in here; can't risk meeting myself, so you have to be the one that gives me the vial. Hide behind the statue and pretend to be the goddess Fortuna, and please, _please, _don't let me see you."

She nodded and he gave her a metallic device "Right. Wait for Gracillus to grab the vial, then you can come back to the TARDIS. And use this, it will hide your voice so I don't recognise you."

She did as he told her and hid behind the sculpture, praying she didn't mess up with the Doctor's orders. Soon, hurried steps echoed inside the shrine, and she caught her breath – the Doctor was here at last.

She looked from behind the sculpture as stealthy as she could and saw him falter in his steps, just some feet away Fortuna's statue and, well, herself. He just stood there from some moments, looking at the statue numbly, when all life seemed to go out from him and kneeled on the floor, his head lowered.

He seemed so defeated… Rose had to use all her self-control from not sobbing at the scene. He had never seen him like this. Sad? Oh yes, but that devastated? And because he had lost her. That raw wave of emotion coming from a Doctor that, for a moment, had left his usual mask just to show – to no one – his pain.

Suddenly, he spoke up. "Rose is prettier than you."

She covered her mouth to stifle a gasp. Her heart beat wildly, and she could feel the heat coming from her surely red cheeks. Her hands trembled a bit when she put the vocoderin front of her mouth, and she muttered the only words that came to her mind "Thanks."

Her eyes looked up wildly, clearly not expecting a response, and his mouth opened and closed in surprise. Before he could find out she was actually there, she made the vial roll to his direction, and observed him grab it with some regained curiosity.

"This will bring Rose and all the others back." Okay, now what? What did a goddess even sound like? "All praise to me. That's Fortuna, and all that."

_Way to go, Rose_, she scolded herself. The Doctor stood up and studied the statue with intrigue, approaching. Which was bad news for a currently hiding Rose. Her hands clasped tight to the vocoder.

When he was about to round Fortuna, said goddess seemed to bless her as Mickey's calling made him stop and turn around, then Roman guards detained him, accused of the stealing of a horse, of all things.

She watched as the Doctor dropped the vial and was restrained, being forced out of the temple. She then watched as Mickey followed him closely, arguing with the guards for them to free the Doctor.

And with horror, she saw as Gracillus passed the vial without giving it a look, opened the doors and walked outside.

She began panicking – if he didn't find the vial everything would go wrong, and who knew what would be the outcome of it. She had to do something, anything to call his attention to the potion without revealing herself, and then an idea – a crazy, maybe hopeless idea – popped up inside her mind.

Praying to every god that was listening to her that the GENIE was near enough to hear her, she muttered "I wish Gracillus would come back now and find the vial."

A loud BANG echoed inside her head, and to her delight, Gracillus did just that. He crouched down to grab the vial with a soft 'aha!' and tucked it inside his pouch, leaving the shrine once again and leaving her alone at last.

She sighed in relief and made her way back to the TARDIS, where the Doctor was waiting for her, leaning on the blue surface casually. He straightened up when he spotted her, and as soon as he was by his side, she hugged him.

She tried to convey in the act everything she'd felt watching his past him – desperation for not being able to console him, gratitude because he had saved her in the end, and affection that always came to her mind whenever she saw him. Judging how his arms tightened around her, he understood.

Some minutes later, they took Vanessa to the day she disappeared, the TV still playing the documentary she was watching when she made her wish. They asked her to tell her father not to build another GENIE, for the sake of her planet, and she agreed wholeheartedly, not wishing what she had experienced on anyone.

Back into the TARDIS, they both looked at the last GENIE alive, who was sitting again on his box.

"What are we going to do with you?" the Doctor contemplated "You're too dangerous to be around, and depending on which hands do you fall into there could be catastrophic results."

He lowered his gaze and whispered, "I don't want to be the cause of anyone's despair anymore."

Rose's heart was touched. It was true he had caused hell of a lot of problems, and some of them were completely his fault, but the sincerity coming from him really filled her heart. He was like a child who wants to have a good time, he didn't mean any harm.

Or so she hoped.

"Hey," she crouched down to look at him in the eye "I've got an idea."

"I'm all ears." The Doctor answered from above, and she shot him a tongue-touched smile

"Not so much anymore," she teased

"Your idea, Dame Tyler?" the Doctor asked, grinning.

"I was thinkin'; this looks like when Aladdin uses his last wish to free the genie, so he could grant wishes because he wanted to, not because someone asked him. We could do just that; it's your choice."

"I can choose to grant wishes?" the GENIE asked. Rose nodded. "Is this… freedom?"

"Yeah."

"Then, I would like that."

Grinning, she said the words the little creature was waiting eagerly to hear. "I wish that the GENIE is free."

The familiar sound banged inside their heads and the half platypus half dragon seemed to smile with happiness. He placed a paw on her knee in gratitude.

"Now then, GENIE, where do you want to go?" the Doctor asked, a soft smile on his lips

"I should like to go somewhere nice, free of people's desire of power. A simple place, where I can be happy."

Rose caressed the top of his head in fondness. "Then, I wish that for you."

And with the blink of an eye, the GENIE disappeared.

The Doctor offered her a hand and helped her to stand up, guiding her in his usual dance around the console room, setting up the coordinates to their new destination. Suddenly, Rose stiffened and looked at him with wide eyes.

"Doctor, wait! I completely forgot! What about the statue, the one we saw at the British museum!? Ursus didn't make it after all. Wouldn't that be a paradox?"

"It's already taken care of. That reminds me, we do need to pop back to Rome."

"What? How?"

He walked to the entrance of the corridor and wiggled his fingers to her. "Come with me?"

She did just that, and the Doctor guided her to a side room. When she walked inside she gaped, as her statue was standing in front of her, the marble shining as if it was brand new.

"What-? How-? B-but I never posed for this!" she exclaimed, pointing at the statue with her hand

"It was never needed. Mickey was right; It was sculpted by someone that knew you really well." He wiggled his eyebrows at her, and realisation hit her.

"You said you didn't sculpt." She said, breathless.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I learned. Michelangelo, as you suggested. Took some pictures with your phone and made it from scratch – mind you, Michelangelo was a pain to deal with, always saying it had to be perfect."

"It _is_ perfect."

"I was inspired. My Fortuna, that's you."

She shifted her eyes from the statue to the Time Lord. He was looking at her with a soft glance, one she had noticed from the corner of her eye a couple of times when he thought she wasn't looking. She thought of all the things that amazing man had done for her, every way he had for expressing his feelings for her, and she snapped.

With two long strides, she was standing in front of him and yanked his head downwards, capturing his lips in a ferocious kiss that he answered just as fervently. He tangled a hand in her hair while the other pushed her back to him, flushing her against him. Her hands roamed his wide back, urging at him to come closer, as it wasn't nearly enough.

The Doctor cornered her against the wall, devouring her mouth, sucking her lips and playfully caressing them with his tongue. He grinded his hips up subconsciously, making her groan, and the Doctor took his chance to sneak his tongue inside her mouth, his mind chanting a repeated record of _more, more, more, more._

They stopped for a moment to catch their breath, and they looked into each other's eyes, telling without words what they already knew.

"We should – " he kissed her jaw "Really, really – " he nipped at one point of her neck where he could feel her quick pulse and she gasped "Go to the Villa and – " Rose sucked his earlobe and he shuddered "Give them the statue."

"Time machine." She just mumbled against his lips and, once again, he was amazed of how brilliant his Rose was.

.-.-.-.-.-.

Some hours later of snogging in different rooms of the sentient ship, and after taking a well-deserved rest, they set the coordinates to Gracillus villa and gave them the statue in exchange of Vanessa's freedom. Not only it was a gift to acknowledge their hospitality and help, but it also helped them to complete the paradox.

They walked hand in hand as they caught the last glimpses of the lively city, marvelling at how they continued with their lives without knowing what had happened mere hours ago.

They arrived once again to the TARDIS and they changed back to their normal clothes, deciding it was time to pick up a certain someone that had been left alone in that place.

The TARDIS materialized near the British museum and they made their way to the Roman exhibition, Rose snapping a picture with his phone at the dark man that was seating – and most definitely sulking – beside a Roman statue they knew too well.

Hearing the muffled giggles, he raised his gaze and looked at them with shock, then happiness to see her alive and well, and finally with anger noticing the clothes they were wearing.

"Both of you have changed." He stated

"Well, yeah. We would stick out like a sore thumb here otherwise, wouldn't we, Rose?"

"Yep."

Mickey snapped and strode angrily towards them "Doctor, first you leave me all by myself with no explanation, wearing a goddamn Roman tunic, locked up in a bloody closed museum for hours! And then I had to explain to the guards why I was there and why they shoudn't kick me out, and deal with seventeen children who wanted to play with my 'dress'."

"Weeell," he scratched his neck sheepishly "I needed to take care of some things in Rome – both at 120 A.D. and the Renaissance – in order to fix everything, and I couldn't take you. But look! Rose's okay and you weren't kicked out! It all turned great at the end."

If looks could kill, the Doctor would be regenerating.

"They thought I was part of the exhibit! I was worried sick and you were taking a stroll through time!?"

Rose couldn't contain her laughter anymore, which earned her another glare from the dark boy, but she couldn't stop. The Doctor soon joined her and Mickey left them fuming, trying to find the TARDIS. They soon followed, still giggling like mad at the poor guy, and the characteristic wheezing sound of the TARDIS leaving was muffled by the racket of the crowd.


	32. Rise of the Cybermen

**I'm sorry for being late, but May and June are going to be really hectic, so I don't assure I can keep on the schedule. Anyway, I'll go publishing as much as I can. Enjoy!**

**[Beta'd]**

**Ch. 26. Rise of the cybermen**

"_No more."_

.-.-.-.-.-.

Mickey Smith was no idiot. Well, he sometimes was, but that was not the point.

Despite what the Doctor liked to claim whenever he found the chance, he noticed things, and he was 100% sure that something had changed between the Time Lord and his blonde friend in the night he spent stuck in the museum.

Sure, they tried to keep their normal behaviour in front of him – if you could call _that _normal. They were almost eating each other with their eyes 24/7, let's not talk about all the touching – but it was when they were alone when the changes were more noticeable.

It was how they spent whole evenings inside the library, laughing and teasing until everything became a little too quiet. It was the way both of them seemed to dance around each other every morning, preparing breakfast. It was the Doctor tiptoeing his way out of Rose's room at 3 am in the morning, looking a little dishevelled but with a huge grin in his face.

Really, he wasn't stupid.

He'd already made up his mind about how things were going to be from now on in the Time Machine, it was as clear as clean water. He just hoped they wouldn't get more sappy than they were now – for the sake of his mental sanity.

So it didn't surprise him when he watched the couple – because no matter how many times they denied it, it was bloody obvious – snuggled on the captain's seat, reminiscing one of their many adventures they'd had on the two years they'd been travelling together. He was getting pretty sick of it, as he'd been listening to their bloody flirting for half an hour, and his finger was already numb from holding the button down, so he decided to interrupt.

"Where was that? What happened?" he wasn't really interested, but he wanted to make them to notice his presence somehow

The Doctor raised his gaze from the blonde girl in her arms ad his eyes widened a bit, almost as if he'd forgotten he'd been standing there all along. Which was a likely possibility "Oh, it was on this… er, planet thing. Asteroid. It's a long story, you had to be there." Then his eyes flickered down, and noticed what he was doing "Um, what are you doing that for?"

He raised an eyebrow in defiance "'Cause you told me to."

"When was that?"

"About half an hour ago."

He seemed a bit dumbfounded by it, but recovered quickly "Um, you can let go now."

Mickey dropped his hand from the button and glared at the alien "Well, how long's it been since I could have stopped?"

"Ten minutes?... twenty..." he rubbed his earlobe and cocked his head, lowering his voice "Twenty-nine?"

Rose snickering was muffled against the Doctor's chest.

"You just forgot me!?"

"No, no, no! I was just, I was calibrating... I was, no, I know exactly what I'm doing."

However, before Mickey could reply, the TARDIS lurched violently and something in the console exploded. The tree travellers fell on the floor at the same time the TARDIS crashed, the lights shutting down at the same time, leaving them in total darkness.

The constant hum of the Time Machine disappeared, the only sound they could hear being their rugged breathing. The Doctor was the first one to stand up, searching with his hands the console.

"Rose? Are you okay?"

She groaned in answer "God, my head… I think I hit it when we crash-landed. Where are you?"

He grabbed her hand "Here. Can you stand?"

"Yeah." She winced

"I'm alright too." Mickey called from the floor "Thanks for askin'."

"Of course you are." He could feel waves of sarcasm coming from the Doctor "Next time you touch my console be more mindful, would you? I'm afraid to know what consequences had your button holding."

"How was this my fault!? You were the one who asked me to hold the damn button!"

The Doctor ignored his yapping and concentrated in the matters in hand. His mind felt strange – all his time senses were jumbled, and his telepathic connection with the TARDIS was strangely silent. He had a bad feeling about this.

He reached for the console to try to jump-start the controls again, but his hand hesitated when he didn't feel anything coming from his time ship. There was no warming of the fingers, no tingling, not even the feeling of energy running under the metal. It was almost as if…

He took in air harshly and actioned the levers before him, muttering under his breath. Soon, his hands became more frantic, and the muttering developed in a repeated chanting of "No, no, no, no." until he froze.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, worried

"It's the TARDIS. She… she's…" he cleared his clamped throat "The TARDIS has fallen through a rip in reality out of the Time Vortex, that was all the shaking. We're out of your universe. Moreover, without a continuous time stream to support her, she… She's dead Rose. My TARDIS' dead."

He heard her gasp, and soon, petite fingers caressed the cold metal they had danced around so many times "How… how can she be dead?"

"She is. You don't feel her under your fingertips, do you?" at her head shaking in negative, he continued "She has no Time Vortex within her core, so she perished. I can't fix her." He looked up at the unlit time rotor "She was the only TARDIS in existence, so I guess the TARDIS species is extinct."

She grabbed his hand and squeezed it, trying to give him the support he needed at the loss of his most faithful companion "But we landed somewhere, didn't we? I mean, if we'd fallen out of our universe, wouldn't we be floating aimlessly? Yet we crashed, we felt it."

"It was the process of falling out of the vortex – it tends to be a bumpy ride. We're at the Void, the nothingness. It's some sort of no-place, a silent realm, a lost dimension..."

Mickey opened the doors and looked outside "Otherwise known as "London"."

"_What?_" the Time Lord rushed outside and looked around gobsmacked "But this is impossible!"

"It is, though. Look," he grabbed one newspaper left on a bench "It's even the same day we left. Now what, Time Lord? Care to explain?" he asked smugly

The Doctor raised his eyes from the newspaper, giving it to Rose, who had just come outside, and looked around once again, drinking the almost quotidian scenery. It couldn't be London! The air didn't taste the same, the time streams didn't feel the same, the sky didn't… _oh._

"So," he asked blatantly "this is London?"

"Yep."

"Your city?"

He nodded "That's the one."

"Just as we left it?"

"Bang on."

"That includes the zeppelins?"

Rose raised her gaze from the newspaper at the same time as Mickey looked up, and both of them gaped at the huge black figures moving throughout the sky. They were everywhere they looked, covering the blue sky

"Those are beautiful." She mumbled, folding the newspaper

Mickey fidgeted on his feet, looking for an answer "OK, so it's London with a big international zeppelin festival."

The Doctor begged to disagree. Everything within him was screaming at his head how wrong that place felt, even if it seemed somewhat ordinary. It was a feeling he had had several times on his adventures, and it brought back memories from long ago. _Oh,_ he thought, _we're in trouble._

"This is not your world." He muttered, "It's a parallel universe. Everything seems the same, feels the same, but it isn't. If you look around you'll find differences between your world and this one; tiny at first, but if you keep adding them it outstands. We have the zeppelins, now look around." He signalled at the people around them. What do you see?"

Both humans did as they were told as they were told and looked around. Everyone seemed to talk to the earpods they were wearing, and anyone seemed to use a phone, something Mickey commented. However, what captured Rose's attention was an add screen, more concretely, the man in the add.

She felt something nagging at the back of her mind, trying to creep out. Suddenly, a memory came to her mind. She was a little girl, Jackie and her were on a bed with a soft pink duvet, and she was braiding her hair. She had asked her why she kept having dates with different guys, and… what had she answered?

"_I'm trying to move on, hon. There was this man with whom I felt madly in love. He was an inventor – had his head full of mad ideas, he did, and they never seemed to work, but we were happy. We married, but before we could have sweet little kids like you he… he passed away."_

"_And you're tryna forget 'im?" She asked naively _

"_Oh no! I just… I want to feel that again, you see? The feeling that, despite not having a single penny in the purse and a little apartment that creaks every step you take, you can overcome anything life throws at you. But I'm afraid I won't find that ever again. He was special lie that."_

_She turned around hugged her doll, before offering it to her. Jackie took it with a look of gratitude "An wha' was his name?"_

"Pete Tyler…." She mumbled, looking at the smiley face of the man in the advertisement, "He's still alive."

"Who?" the Doctor called from behind, and she turned around to look at them

She pointed with her head the digital poster "Pete Tyler, mum's husband. He passed away a year before she adopted me. She always told me he had this mad ideas that failed all the time, struggling to pay the rent every end of month… it seems he was successful in the end."

"Rose…" he cupped her face with his hands and pressed their foreheads together "You know it's not the same man your mother married, right?"

"Yeah." She nodded, covering one of her hands with his "I can't help but being curious; you would be too if you'd heard her talk about him. Mum always said he was brilliant."

"I'm sure he is. Don't do anything reckless, though, okay? This is a parallel world; parallel Pete most certainly has a parallel Jackie and they have a parallel life, maybe with a parallel Rose. Promise me, please."

"Yeah, I promise."

"Good. Now, you want to help me with the TARDIS? Now that I know we're in a parallel universe instead that on the Void, there's a tiny chance we could save her. And the faster we heal her, the faster we can go to our original universe…" his voice dropped, adding a husky tint that made her shiver from head to toe "and travel through time and space."

"Okay…" she answered a bit breathless. He grinned wickedly, ignoring Mickey's disgusted groan and interlaced their fingers, tugging her to the darkened console room

When they arrived at the console room, he immediately put his hands on the console and closed his eyes, deep in concentration. When he opened them again, his face brightened in hope.

"Right! There's still a chance! But first…"

He suddenly began glowing with golden particles, reminding Rose painfully the moment he regenerated, but before she could make a step forward, the glowing stopped and the lights blinked twice.

"What have you done?" she asked, torn between awe and shock

He looked back at her worried face and smiled reassuringly, extending his hand for her to take "Just gave ten years of this body's life. Worth every second. Now, let's see what we've got here."

The Doctor took out of his pockets two lanterns – after taking a rope, three bags of jelly babies, metal knick-knacks, and a pair of flippers; he really had to clean those bigger-on-the-inside pockets – and hanged them on the coral, giving the console room a bluish glow. He sonicked the metal rating, and before jumping in, he looked at the dark man.

"Mickey do you want…? Never mind; last time you touched an important component of the console, we ended here."

He glared at him "I still fail to see how all this is my fault."

The Doctor ignored him and jumped down. Rose, however, threw him an apologetic glance "He's just jokin', Mick."

"Sure he is."

So they spent half an hour rummaging in the power cells of the TARDIS, the Doctor pointing her where he needed light, and passing the tools he needed to fix the loose circuits. After what seemed an eternity, the Doctor gave one whoop of joy, and his head popped out of the grating.

"I've found it!" he quickly rushed back and detached what he had been looking for until then. When he remerged, he was carrying a round metallic device, which had a soft cerulean light blinking

"What's this?"

"This, Rose Tyler, is life. It's one of the energy cells of the TARDIS. Let's say it's like a car's batteries; the fall left the TARDIS without fuel, so the power cells were drained, and that's why the TARDIS almost died. But! Giving away power of my regeneration gave the energy cell a boost and fell in a cycle."

"So… it's recharging itself?"

"Right! This tiny little thing will generate enough energy to help the TARDIS jump across universes and return home. Might need to make a stop in Cardiff afterwards; an energy cell alone can't stand the regeneration process of the TARDIS, so she won't be able to heal herself properly."

She caressed the round-shaped cell carefully, and she felt the familiar tingling on her fingertips in return. She raised her gaze in surprise, only to see the Doctor looking back at her lovingly.

"Look at you two," Mickey mumbled at the threshold "Looking at the thingy as if it was your first newborn. So, how much time will it take to recharge?"

"Hmm, 24 hours, more or less."

"And meanwhile we could… explore?"

"Yeah, I guess…" he still didn't raise his eyes from the power cell, turning it around on his palm and sonicing it "I mean, if we stay together and-"

"Right." He interrupted him "Well, I have to check on someone, so if you don't mind me going…"

The Doctor and Rose raised their eyes, but Mickey had already walked out the dark spaceship. They rushed outside, only to see the boy fusing with the crowd, making them lose sight of him.

"Wait! Mickey! You- What- This is not your London, you don't belong here!"

If he heard him, he paid no mind.

"Mickey! Come back!" when the man didn't answer the Doctor swore, kicking the side of the TARDIS.

"Did that help?" Rose asked, amused

"Yes."

She noticed his stiff posture "Did that hurt?"

"Yes." He winced and clutched his foot "Ow!"

She giggled at his reaction "Come here, you big baby." She closed the door of the Time Machine and helped him sit on a nearby bench, the angry man still cursing under his breath

"Why, Rose? Why did he run away like that? Do you know something?"

"Maybe?" she took out her phone and played with the buttons absentmindedly "I mean, he told me the other day that he recently lost his grandmother, that's why he asked to come with us. Maybe he went to check if she's still alive in here?"

"But independently of her being alive here, she's not _his _grandmother. She's a total different person with a different life. For all we know, there's a different Mickey roaming around. What if he meets himself?"

"I guess the reassurance of her being alive here and seeing her for the last time it's enough for him."

He looked down at the amazing human sitting beside her, still clicking at the buttons absentmindedly while resting her head on his shoulder. What had he done in the multiverse to deserve her?

"How's your head?" he asked softly

She looked up and grinned "Still hurtin', but not as much. How's your foot?"

"Bah, just fine. What are you doing with your phone?"

"I was just- You see everyone with this earpods? I was checking if there was some kind of internet or somethin' connecting them. And look." She showed him the screen; a webpage loaded on it "I got lucky."

With a smile, he lowered his lips to her and gave her a peck "You're brilliant. Want to wander a bit?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

They jumped on their feet and took an aimless walk, just observing the people around them. The Doctor caught Rose's phone and began looking for information about the earpods, when suddenly the crowd froze.

"What's going on?" Rose asked alarmed

"It's the EarPods, look." He showed her the information streaming on the phone "Those devices let them download information directly into their brains. It's a news podcast, but they don't need to print them down."

She scrolled down "Politics, economy, gossip, sports…" the crowd laughed in unison "Joke. So, is this like Satellite Five? But I thought humans needed centuries to develop something like this!"

"Yet here they are, with a direct stream of information through their minds." He grinned at her, excited "This is advanced. Way too advanced."

"I guess it was a good idea to take a stroll, wasn't it?" she smiled with her tongue between her teeth

"Yep." He continued to look for information in that world's network "Here says that the EarPods are manufactured by someone named Cybus, who lately has made some top-notch technology. He's the owner of almost all the companies in Britain, and look who's on the list."

She checked it "Vitex? Isn't that…?"

"Yep! It's Pete's company. Oh, and look who's having a birthday's celebration? Your parallel mother! Although it says it's her thirty-ninth birthday… isn't she, like, fifty seven?"

She hit him playfully "You know she's forty."

"They still got her age wrong. Although, knowing Jackie, it's most likely to be on purpose. Anyway, the party seems to be a big deal; lots of high profiles cramped in a manor, surely they know loads about the pods. So! Dame Rose Tyler," he bowed teasingly "would you do me the honor to accompany me to a party tonight as my guest?"

"Oh my, Sir Doctor, of course!"

.-.-.-.-.-.

"So, when you told me we were going on a party, I didn't think it'd be like this." Rose placed the dirty rag on the counter and straightened the too short maid uniform. She was glad to be wearing dark stocking, seriously, "You know how to woo a girl."

"Don't be like that! We could be in the party, yes, but who wants to talk with stuck-up people about, I don't know, politics? Nah." The Doctor gave her a plate of nibbles "As I always say; if you want to know something, any dark secret no one knows about, ask in the kitchen."

She huffed "Oh, I can talk to the service alright wearing a satin dress, not this… cotton torture."

"Well…" he averted his gaze, scratching his neck "I can't help but like you inside this 'cotton torture'."

She grinned saucily and subtly hit him with her hip "Are we feeling kinky today, Doctor?"

"What!?" he raised his voice and the guests looked at him startled. He hung his head in an apology and glared at her with heated cheeks "I am most certainly _not_ kinky."

"What? I don't mind." She sent him a look to let him know she was only teasing "I like your bowtie; it suits you."

He shrugged as one guest grabbed some canapés from his plate "It's okay, I guess. Nevertheless, this suit's cursed. Every time, and I mean every single time, I wear it something bad happens."

"Are you sure it's not just you, trouble magnet?" she smiled at one old couple passing by

Before he could retort, the host of the party asked them for silence. Pete Tyler greeted them all from the stairs, thanking them all for coming to their wife's thirty ninth – at that, the visitors laughed – birthday. Then there she came; Jackie Tyler in all her finest, wearing a fitting black dress and greeting at ease at everyone.

Rose thought about her own Jackie Tyler in her tracksuit, watching telly alone while waiting hopeful until the familiar groan of the time machine echoed on the Powell State, and she couldn't help feeling that pang of regret for making her be by herself.

"What's wrong?" the Doctor asked silently beside her, shooting her side-glances.

"It's just… they have each other here, and then I think of mum back at home… and I can't help but feel like I'm abandoning her."

"You're not. Everyone leaves home at the end, Rose, and we do plenty of visiting – really, I've never visited a companion's mother so much, nor I had been hit by one either. She has you, and that's enough for her." he then looked torn about something "If you really think it's necessary… we could visit her more… frequently? I wouldn't mind… even though I'd had to stand her banter about what Bev or Collin or whoever did and why."

She smiled back at him "Hmm, aren't you just a sweetheart."

He cleared his throat "Well, seeing as everyone's scattered now, I'm gonna do some sniffing." He threw her a pointed look "Behave."

She stuck out her tongue as he left, waving his hand lazily. She stood there smiling falsely to the stuck-up rich men around her, even if they didn't thank her nor even throw her a glance. It didn't help that stupid headache didn't seem to go away anytime soon.

Sooner than later, she found herself resting in the outside garden, tired of the loud mood from inside. She sighed and looked up, where twinkling stars and the night sky was visible between zeppelins. She missed her world already.

The crystal door leading to the garden opened, and a tired Pete Tyler stepped out. When he noticed her there, he stopped mid-tracks.

"Oh, I didn't know this spot was already taken. I'll go then."

"Oh no, no!" She stopped him "There's plenty of room for both of us. Sir." She added afterwards, remembering her position.

"If you say so…"

He closed the door and rested the back of his head on the cold wall behind him, closing his eyes. He looked pretty worn out, and that that worried her a bit – for what she'd seen so far, Pete was nice to the help, so he wouldn't mind talking to her… right? Well, it wasn't like she was going to work here again.

"Are you okay, sir?"

"Please, call me Pete. Sir makes me feel older that I already am. Well, I feel too old for some things at the moment."

She threw him a teasing smile. "Are you talking about the party?"

"Yeah." Pete exhaled, his voice tired. "It was Jackie's idea. God knows she loves a nice 'n loud party once in a while. And well, she's the birthday, so who am I to deny it to her?"

She nodded, happy. "How many years have you been married?"

"Twenty-one, almost twenty-two. And god… it hasn't been an easy ride. When I met her I was a nobody; we had barely anything to eat! But when Vitex succeeded and money began coming home, she… she changed. She went from the cheeky and strong girl I fell in love with to the kind of woman she used to criticize all those years ago."

"But you still love her, right?" Rose asked.

"As much as I did when I met her. But it seems it doesn't apply to her." He opened his eyes and grimaced, looking down at his drink. "We're signing divorce papers in a week. Heck, I've been sleeping in the sofa for a month now, sharing space with the dog."

She raised an eyebrow. "But you seemed very happy in there."

"All an act. That's what this world's shown me – all the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. Cheers to Shakespeare, he was a wise man." He moved his champagne flute forward, toasting the air, and drowned the drink with one gulp. "I must be boring your mind out with all my drama. I'll stop now."

"Oh, not at all! You can vent all you want, I don't mind."

"It's just… it's easy to talk to you. Why is that?"

She simply shrugged. "I'm just a good listener, that's all."

He looked at her and suddenly straightened up. "God, pardon my manners. I didn't ask for your name."

"Oh, it's cool, don't worry. I'm Rose. Rose Tyler."

His eyes widened slightly, but before he could speak, the people inside the manor began shouting. The windows shattered, and Pete tried to cover her body with this in order to take her out of harm's way. People began rushing out, blue laser shots flying here and there, hitting some of the panicking people.

Pete tried to tug her to follow him, looking for a way out of danger, but she refused to go, looking wildly for her spiky-haired Time Lord among the blur of people.

"ROSE!"

There he was, his face stuck in a mask of alarm, looking for her.

"Doctor!" she shouted, trying to catch his attention. He spun around and saw her, and with two long strides was standing in front of her, closing his eyes as he rested his forehead in hers, trying to convey the relief he felt in finding her

The moment was cut too short, as… humanoid robots made a hole in the wall and came out. He glanced back then to the two Tylers and he grabbed her hand, urging them to follow him.

"What are those?"

"Cybermen."

"Like the one in the museum, in Utah?"

He nodded "Yeah. They're this universe's form."

She looked at how they grabbed a wailing woman and took her away. "Why are they taking people?"

"They need stock to make more of them."

"They're people?" Pete asked out of breath

They avoided a laser shot and turned left the manor, trying to lose the Cybermen that were following them.

"They were. Now they've had all their humanity taken away. That's a living brain jammed inside a cybernetic body, with a heart of steel. All emotions removed."

"Why no emotion?"

He looked at her and tightened his grip on her hand. "Because it hurts."

They were about to turn left, when they stumbled right in front of two Cybermen. They turned around mechanically, and began striding towards them.

"Wrong way! It's the wrong way! Come on!"

They rushed backwards, but someone grabbed her by her shoulders. She shrieked in surprise, only to find Mickey looking down at her, a rifle in his hands.

"Oh my god, look at you! I thought I'd never see you again!"

The boy looked down at her in confusion, and a bit ticked off. "Yeah, no offense but who the hell are you?"

"Rose!" another Mickey appeared from behind "That's not me. That's like, the other one."

"Oh, as if things weren't bad enough, there's two Mickeys!" the Doctor huffed

"Right. And it's Rickey, not Mickey." He pulled the trigger and pointed to the metal men "Now, move out of the way, Blondie. I've got this."

"You don't talk to her like this, _Rickey_. And you most certainly don't 'have this'." He nodded at the rifle in their hands. "These guns are useless against Cybermen. Now let's go!"

But it was too late. Cybermen were surrounding them, and soon, every chance to escape disappeared. They were running short of time, and if they didn't do something, they would be done.

Before the Cybermen could act, the Doctor threw his arms to the air, hoping his plan would work. It wouldn't save them, but it'd buy them enough time to think of another plan. A better one, of course.

Rose imitated him almost immediately, and finally, almost all of them followed, although some of them reluctantly.

"We surrender." At his words, some of them looked at him as if he'd gone crazy. "There's no need to damage us, we're good stock. We volunteer for the upgrade programme. Take us to be processed."

One of the cybermen spoke, representing the group. "You are rogue elements."

"But we surrender" He frowned. He looked back at this universe's Rickey and the other one "Throw away your guns!"

"You are incompatible."

"But this is a surrender."

"You will be deleted," the Cyberman answered, uncaring.

The Doctor lost his cool. "But we're surrendering! Listen to me, we surrender!"

"You are inferior. Men will be reborn as Cybermen, but you will perish under maximum deletion. Delete, delete, delete."

Every Cyberman raised his right arm, and the blast began charging. They began stepping forward, cornering them. The group of six looked around anxiously, trying to find some possible escape, but they came out with empty hands.

The laser guns of the Cybermen finished charging, and they all stopped, waiting for their commander's order.

"Delete!"


End file.
